Three treatments, in a completely-randomised design with three replicates per treatment, were set up in experimental plots of 6 m2 each, with 0.5 m distance between plots. The treatments were: mineral fertiliser (a 15 N–15 P2O5–15 K2O commercial inorganic fertiliser was applied at a rate 200 kg ha−1) (Control) and a dose of cow manure or olive husk (51 and 53 t ha−1, respectively), which provided 15 t ha−1 of organic matter. The organic fertilisation was applied to the soil five weeks prior to first planting, whereas the inorganic fertiliser was added on the first day of growth. Due to the low concentration of total-N in the olive husk in comparison with the manure (Table 1), 179 g of NH4NO3 per plot were added to the olive husk-treated plots 20 days after transplanting the first crop.