rox
Veteran Member
We ahve had a streak of good weather which has allowed my husband and myself to get a jup on pruning the olive trees. Last eyar we did about 700 of them and so this year we have another 700 of them. This farm had a farmhand but we cna't figure out what he actually did. the trees were left to grow way way to high. The farmhand cut off all the bottom branches, and let them grow to tall, thus all the growth is up high where you cna't reach them with the harvesting equipment. you only wnat to grow the trees as high as you can pick off the olives. i beleive he did it to make his tractoring easier. it is also much easier to cut off a limb/branch at the trunk of the tree rather than carefully cut it back and to try and save as many branches from the limb as possible. 1 saw cut, cut the whole limb verses 50 snips with the pruning shears. i don't know why the prevous owner let him get away with that.
one thing I learned from my first round at pruning you really need to cut them short, these trees thrive here and literally grow 2 to 3 feet in a year. I'm using a Stihl combi system chainsaw, that is on a long pole. my husband is hand cutting with a small saw. I do ove the Stihl saw, I am able to start it without to much effort, and once it is warmed up it only takes one pull to start it back up again.
I did two short rows where I did a full pruning. There are 2 types of pruning the grand pruning and the small pruning. The grand pruning you are jsut cutting the tree down to size and clenaing out the center of the tree. The small pruning you go to each branch and you cut anything that grows down, and crossing branches. Basically you look at the branches and try and predict how a branch will grow and you snip off surrounding branches to give it room to grow. The real payback is with the small pruining, if you do a real fine job at the small pruing you can increase your production 2 fold and that is a lot. After this year getting the trees cut back down to size, from then on we should be able to move through the 12 acre farm and jsut do the small pruning. Our plan is to do the large pruing and then if we have time to go back and get as much small pruning done as we can.
In the first pic i am showing a pruned back tree next to an un pruned one, only the grand pruing has been done, the cut tree still needs the fine pruning done. This will give you an idea of the magnitude of the project.
In the second pic I'm showing a row of perfectly pruned trees
In the third pic I'm showing a close up of a pruned tree. Notice how bad it is is you cut off all the bottom branches and let the trees grow to tall. you ge no bottom growth! Thankfully olive trees are almost impossible to kill and they grow back quickly. Within 2 years the trees will be totally filled out and again need pruing back.
In the Fourth pic is just a small very small part of the brush that we now have to take care of. we lop off the small branches and save branches and limbs for firewood. My husband will burn the branches in the space between the olvie trees. We could never do that before because the trees had grown out to wide and it wasn't safe. now that we cut them back we can burn right in the field, that will be very nice. We have our tractor ready with a spayer filled with water, as our stand by firetruck tanker.
I the fifth pic is an example of what a fantastic crop you can get from a well prunned olvie tree. See how many leaves there are on the branch and how healthy and green it is. If you don't prune, the branches keep growing outwards but towards the center of the tree where the branch starts it is all wood and no leaves. that doens't produce olvies.
one thing I learned from my first round at pruning you really need to cut them short, these trees thrive here and literally grow 2 to 3 feet in a year. I'm using a Stihl combi system chainsaw, that is on a long pole. my husband is hand cutting with a small saw. I do ove the Stihl saw, I am able to start it without to much effort, and once it is warmed up it only takes one pull to start it back up again.
I did two short rows where I did a full pruning. There are 2 types of pruning the grand pruning and the small pruning. The grand pruning you are jsut cutting the tree down to size and clenaing out the center of the tree. The small pruning you go to each branch and you cut anything that grows down, and crossing branches. Basically you look at the branches and try and predict how a branch will grow and you snip off surrounding branches to give it room to grow. The real payback is with the small pruining, if you do a real fine job at the small pruing you can increase your production 2 fold and that is a lot. After this year getting the trees cut back down to size, from then on we should be able to move through the 12 acre farm and jsut do the small pruning. Our plan is to do the large pruing and then if we have time to go back and get as much small pruning done as we can.
In the first pic i am showing a pruned back tree next to an un pruned one, only the grand pruing has been done, the cut tree still needs the fine pruning done. This will give you an idea of the magnitude of the project.
In the second pic I'm showing a row of perfectly pruned trees
In the third pic I'm showing a close up of a pruned tree. Notice how bad it is is you cut off all the bottom branches and let the trees grow to tall. you ge no bottom growth! Thankfully olive trees are almost impossible to kill and they grow back quickly. Within 2 years the trees will be totally filled out and again need pruing back.
In the Fourth pic is just a small very small part of the brush that we now have to take care of. we lop off the small branches and save branches and limbs for firewood. My husband will burn the branches in the space between the olvie trees. We could never do that before because the trees had grown out to wide and it wasn't safe. now that we cut them back we can burn right in the field, that will be very nice. We have our tractor ready with a spayer filled with water, as our stand by firetruck tanker.
I the fifth pic is an example of what a fantastic crop you can get from a well prunned olvie tree. See how many leaves there are on the branch and how healthy and green it is. If you don't prune, the branches keep growing outwards but towards the center of the tree where the branch starts it is all wood and no leaves. that doens't produce olvies.