1666 Olive Tree Pruning

Good luck with your move. :) We also found the Forum invaluable when we were moving over. Loads of help and advise and answers to all those queries which suddenly pop up.
We are in Puglia and moved over last May. We have about 50 Olive trees.One of the best sources of practicle info is actually your neighbours who know your area the best. Our trees need pruning next year but I think we will have to get someone in to do them this first time . Haven't found any web-sites but hope someone comes up with something....they usually do !!! :) Let us know how you get on. :cool:

Welcome to the board, as Lyn says, chat with your neighbours, you will inevitably find the local expert to help you, probably in his late eighties, fit as a fiddle and a genious with the trees, expect a very heavy pruning session though.

alex and lyns advise is good...the locals are the best source of help....

its very hard to be specific about any pruning job...because of regional variations in temperature and when and how they have been pruned in the past....

as a general principle in all pruning the idea is to create an open structure.... and remove all suckering growth whilst depending on if the tree or plant produces its flowers/fruit on one year growth or manages on older wood or this years growth

olives that have been let go for a number of years are easy enough to get back into trim but in all probability you will loose one years harvest....
...with forty trees that have not been managed well an idea might be to prune half in a way that takes them back to a good structural basis for olive production not next year but the year after.... this will mean in a sense taking a chain saw and cutting back very hard much of the growth that has just gone up too high and is not manageable for picking from easily....

the other half just prune easily for next years production...trying to open up the structure a bit .... olives produce on one year growth....

in all cases to make sure of good production and if you even dont prune at all this is necessary is to remove all suckering groth from the trunk and branches.... if possable do not use cuters as this promotes regrowth...tear them off and where they break from the trunk /branch they will not regrow again...why...because these young suckering shoots take a lot of the nourishment and they grow instead of olives.... this can be done anytime...

another point with pruning in general is to do it when the plant is dormant or reverting to dormant...some people prune in autumn after the harvest to try and take a lot of the growth off so that you reduce wind/snow damage to the plant.... others like to do it as you have said in february.... at both times the plant is in a sense hibernating and it causes little or no stress to it...

...again in pruning a general principle is that the harder you cut back the more the plant will grow at that point.... ie if you want to balance a shape then you cut back the longer branch a little and the shorter branch hard.... within a year they will almost invariably be the same size... a result of the plant recognising the two wounds... and then regarding the harder wound/where you have cut lower ... thinks it need to put a lot of its nourishment to that point to repair it... stimulating regrowth...

these are general principle and i think if you are able to get someone in to help with the pruning... and you watch them it will make a lot of sense in what they are doing and the year after you will be able to manage yourself.... and after a couple of years will be an expert

... one thing you will never do...is kill it... so dont worry too much....and be careful when you start .... its a fact here there are lot of accidents when climbing into trees and straining to reach that last elusive bunch of olives.... in general also people use wooden ladders...not aluminium ones as they tend to slip less..... which is also a good reason to return an overgrown tree back to a normal pickable height... it just makes life a lot safer and a lot easier in the future both for pruning and for picking...

Thanks for the good advice, we have not met neighbours yet, Think there are Roman and use the house for vacation but if they cant help no doubt they know someone who can.
Many thanks again looking forward to more posts in the future.

as regards olives..... after three days of warm dry sunshine it all started this weekend.... the harvest...everyone busy with nets and ladders .... and picnic lunches in the fields.... sometimes when you are sitting up on the hills looking down in the far distance to the roma/teramo motorway having your three course lunch in a field surrounded by olive trees and everyone joking away about this and that and a bottle of two of wine has dissapeared ... you reflect on the mad life that you have left behind...... and maybe it doesnt get any better than this... a bit of work...a bit of food... a drop or two of wine ...and a good crowd of italian natives aged from eight to eighty all out in the field... all happy...this year the harvest is a good one.... hopefully all will go well for you too

[B][url]http://www.oliveoilsource.com/Propagating.htm[/url][/B]Found this for you dave tells you about renovating an old grove hope this helps There are books at amazon on olive growing.

Hi Dave. The good news is that it is almost impossible to do any lasting damage to olive trees by over-pruning. The worst that can happen is that you get a lower crop for a year or two, or an ugly-looking tree. On the whole, it is better to over-prune, since they grow abundantly every spring, as you will find.

We live just a few Km's down the road from you in San Terenziano, so, once you get installed, I could show-up with my saw and do the first one or two with you if you like. I've sent you a Private Message with our contact details.

Hi , just saw message re Olive pruning. I found some useful info and books from Australia on [url]www.australianolives.com[/url], quite tecnical books on Olive growing, but in english writen by Italians. Also there is a good booklet which is a little less heavy going and a good read called " Discovering Oil" by Brian and Lynne Chatterton published by pulcini press, ISBN No. 0-473-06289-5 Quite difficult to get hold of but worth the search. I am just of to our newly aquired Olive grove in Sardinia to negotiate a deal for harvesting. Can't wait to taste our own fresh Oil !!
Any more info on olives would be most helpful

[QUOTE=adriatica]as regards olives..... after three days of warm dry sunshine it all started this weekend.... the harvest...everyone busy with nets and ladders .... and picnic lunches in the fields.... sometimes when you are sitting up on the hills looking down in the far distance to the roma/teramo motorway having your three course lunch in a field surrounded by olive trees and everyone joking away about this and that and a bottle of two of wine has dissapeared ... you reflect on the mad life that you have left behind...... and maybe it doesnt get any better than this... a bit of work...a bit of food... a drop or two of wine ...and a good crowd of italian natives aged from eight to eighty all out in the field... all happy...this year the harvest is a good one.... hopefully all will go well for you too[/QUOTE]

We also are about to begin the harvest of our 80 trees. The weather has been so fine, hope it lasts during the harvest. Does Abruzzo olive oil have the distinctive "pizzico" of our new oil?

abruzzo olive oil depending where it is grown is regarded as one of the best in the world......

howebver there are differences and the best is from the harder grown areas where olive groves are perched higher up on the sides of hills.... in a way under nourished and underwatered..... it produces a very tastey oil which can almost be drunk by the glassful....

however it is only produced in this way still by the smaller farms...with most of the family working in factories it is left to the older generation to maintain them.... and it is a dying trade... though their are a few specialist producers that have learned to market high quality organic oil....

once again eu grants have been to blame..... huge commercial olive groves were planted all along the adriatic plain....very fertile and with almost free access to water..... piped from the mountains.... they produce bigger olives...are easier to harvest...require copious amounts of chemical input as due to milder winters along the coast they are more susceptible to bugs and disease.... and they are making it un competative for the smaller producers...

... however things may change.... water becoming an expensive and rarer commodity .... some people are wondering why its being used to water olive groves for virtually nothing when people have to pay so much.... i know in certain areas of puglia where there are summer shortages its become even more of an issue.... olives had always been grown where they didnt need this pampering...so maybe people will realise that they have a valuable and dissapearing commodity in the hills away from their coastline and do something about it.... as usual i have gone far away from the original post.... but there you are...many of the foreigners that come here do buy in the hills and maintain old groves..... maybe they will be the future of the one of the best olive oils to be produced in italy.... from the marche to puglia

John

If you can recommend any of the small suppliers I'd appreciate it, we're over in Abruzzo in a couple of weeks and I was hoping to bring some quality oil back with me.

Saluti

Kerry

kerry... if you would care to vist us in the teramo region...you can buy oil from any of the locals here.... failing that there is an agriturismo i have heard of in the atri area that produces an organic oil....sorry because we have our own supply have never bothered noting the name.... failing that again...because you might not be in the teramo region...where we live...whereever you go in a village from 200 m or so above sea level ..... up to around 450 m all you have to do is ask if anyone is selling olive oil..... and someone will take you off to a cantena and you will be able to fill your receptacle....bring a plastic can for the transport... they are better on aeroplanes... and decant immediately you get home into glass or stainless steel container...

send a pm for details if you are going to be coming into our area .... otherwise have a good visit

go to amazon .co.uk they sell books on olive trees and their care.

Just sellect books and olive treesand there re a number of boks to select from

Welcome to the forum, hope you will find it useful.
Zoe, lots of info on olive pruning etc on this forum if you do a search!

Aliena, do believe this might be the second thread you had almost forgotten about!!?? Ha Ha!

"Province" and "Region" in different areas of Italy run courses about how to look after olive trees. Well at least I'm sure in Lombardy they do it.
They're only in Italian of course but it might be interesting.

Try to enquiry either the "province" and the "region" where you live.