Morphological, physiological and biochemical changes of young plants of some olive cultivars (Olea europaea L.) under drought stress conditions

In order to investigate the effect of drought on some of the olive cultivars, a pot experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design in Gilan-Gharb city of Kermanshah Province in pot condition during 2015. The treatments consisted of three irrigation levels of 100 (control), 75 and 50% field capacity, and three olive cultivars (Zard, Amigdalolia and Konservolia). The results showed that vegetative growth such as plant height, Leaf number, leaf area and root length were significantly affected by water stress depending on the cultivar. Peroxidase and catalase enzymes activity were significantly different between cultivars under water stress. The highest levels of peroxidase and catalase activity were observed in Konservolia cultivar and 50% irrigation treatments. The amount of phenol increased under water stress. Zard, Amigdalolia and Konservolia had the highest levels of phenol under stress treatments in compare to the control plants, respectively. The amount of malondialdehyde in different treatments was significantly affected by drought stress. The highest amount of malondialdehyde was observed in irrigation treatments of 50% in Zard cultivar with about 57% compared to control plants. Generally, according to the response of cultivars, they differed in drought stress, and each showed a specific response. Vegetative growth under conditions of drought stress was higher in Zard, Konservolia and Amigdalolia cultivars, respectively. Zard variety was superior in terms of phenol content and peroxidase and catalase activity, while Konservolia had the highest sugar content.