For efficient integrated management of verticillium wilt in olive (VWO), it is important to establish whether irrigation treatments (with Verticillium dahliae‐free water) that mitigate the disease in V. dahliae‐infested soil, also reduce the levels of more and less persistent propagules of the pathogen in the soil. Effects of irrigation on VWO and V. dahliae propagules were evaluated under natural environmental conditions. Potted plants were irrigated (pathogen‐free water) to two ranges of soil water content (RWC; high and low) at three surface drip‐irrigation frequencies (daily, weekly, and daily during some periods and otherwise weekly). VWO and total inoculum density (ID), density of less persistent micropropagules (MpD) and more persistent sclerotia in wet soil (SwD), and sclerotia density for air‐dried soil (SdD) were monitored. A logistic model (multiple sigmoid) of disease incidence revealed the lowest parameter values in treatments irrigated daily. Daily frequency of irrigation showed significantly lower disease incidence (39.2%) and disease intensity index (43.9%) and MpD (88.0%) values as areas compared with other frequencies, regardless of the RWC. High RWC significantly reduced (70.8–84.9%) ID, SwD and SdD as areas, but significantly increased (18.0%) the incidence of infected plants (IIP), regardless of the irrigation frequency. The disease incidence was not correlated with temperature. Daily irrigation to low RWC mitigated the VWO and the IIP, kept soil to the lowest MpD and resulted in the lowest SdD level at the end of the trial. Results suggested that less persistent propagules could have played a part in the disease development.

The effects of irrigation on verticillium wilt in olive, in terms of morphological, biomass and physiological parameters were evaluated on pot‐grown trees maintained in the field for 3 years. Plants inoculated and noninoculated with Verticillium dahliae were irrigated to high and low range of soil water content (HR and LR) at daily (DF; about 2 days/event), weekly (WF) and daily‐weekly (DWF) drip‐irrigation frequency. Morphological parameters, relative biomass and biomass water‐use efficiency were higher at LR than at HR (with few exceptions) and at DF than at other frequencies in noninoculated and inoculated plants, but the fungus reduced those parameters by 17.0–38.5%. Lower root weight ratio, relative biomass and shoot length as area originated at HR in noninoculated plants, could be favourable to the accumulation of root infections and the amount of fungus per tissue length in inoculated plants because higher infection was known at HR. Moreover, higher aerial biomass and length promoted by irrigation at DF could prevent the more severe expression of symptoms, which occurred at WF and DWF in the presence of Verticillium. Negative correlations were found between indicated parameters and disease. Lower water stress (SΨ), and higher stomatal conductance (gs) and net photosynthesis at DF in noninoculated plants could limit the disease by improving water status, as SΨ was increased by the fungus only at WF and DWF, and gs and disease were negatively correlated. LR‐DF treatment minimized the disease and kept the growth, water‐use efficiency and physiological parameters in inoculated plants to levels close to noninoculated plants.