Saturday 5 October 2013

Cutting wild olives

Moves closer to the harvest season.
It is time to prepare the plants to facilitate the harvest operations.
Armed with pruning shears, you will be required to cut the whole wild olive growing at the base of the
olive trees. Both because it would disturb  to spread out the tends during the harvest, and because these new seedlings that try to come up do nothing but consume nutrients from the plant that hosts them.
The wild olive in our groves grow because all of our olive trees are derived from wild olive trees that have been grafted decades ago by our grandparents.
This type of cultivation ensures a long life to plants (even centuries if not eradicated by man) and at the same time gives  greater strength and resistance to weathering and external attacks.

The price to pay for these benefits is that every year new shoots should be cut. Operation for which it takes on average about 15 minutes per plant and this weighs once again on the price of the final product.
The 'modern' plants  of intensive olive groves, which instead come from nurseries, do not have this problem, but at the same time they are also less noble and strong.
So, patience, better to work a few days more on each olive grove but have more robust plants and obtain a product more typical.
I'm going now that the plants are waiting for me;-)

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