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Olive tree pruning scheme and techniques: everything you need to know

Pruning interventions in olive groves are essential to guide the plants towards specific production targets, maximizing their yield and resistance to pathogens and climatic stresses. In addition, they serve to improve the quality of the fruits, their size and organoleptic properties, helping to create tidy and aesthetically pleasing olive groves.

Regardless of the extent of the land and the ultimate purposes of their activity, olive growers must identify the most suitable pruning schemes and techniques to achieve the desired results, as well as the tools that are able to make operations in the olive grove efficient.

Since 1958, Campagnola pruning solutions have been contributing to the performance of those who are committed every day to maintaining the high quality of olives and the products they produce. Let’s delve deeper into the topic and find out what are the most important indications to follow for this crucial phase of the management of an olive grove.

 

Olive tree pruning scheme

The first step to take to carry out an  effective pruning of the olive tree is to establish a sequence of operations that help to obtain maximum productivity for the plant and concrete benefits for its well-being. With this in mind, different types of pruning can be combined over the years.

  • Development pruning, which is necessary for younger plants, because it helps to give shape to the foliage and provide it with a balanced structure, which facilitates fruiting and subsequent harvesting.
  • Production pruning, which serves to maximize production yield, eliminating excess branches and promoting irradiation and aeration of the foliage.
  • Maintenance pruning, carried out on mature trees, which maintains the shape of the plant, removes dry, damaged or diseased branches and promotes the penetration of light and air into the foliage.
  •  Rejuvenation pruning, particularly energetic and aimed at revitalizing older and unproductive olive trees, stimulating the production of new shoots.

 

What tools for pruning olive trees? Campagnola’s proposals

The choice of the best pruning tools focuses on identifying tools that guarantee power, precise cuts and respect for the plant, ensuring the operator reliability, safety, comfort and reduced fatigue.

What are the essentials for this operation?

 

Olive tree pruning: the best time of the year

There are mainly two periods dedicated to olive tree pruning, one during the winter months and one in the summer months. Winter or dry pruning is carried out from October to March, after the olive harvest and when the plant is in the vegetative rest phase. It has numerous purposes, such as eliminating dry, diseased or unproductive branches, improving the structure of the foliage and the penetration of air and light into it, controlling the size of the olive tree and promoting future productivity.

On the other hand, summer or green pruning of the olive tree is carried out in the vegetative and productive period of the plant, to lighten the foliage by removing excess branches and suckers. This type of pruning also has direct effects on the health of the plant, as well as on the quality and quantity of the fruits.

 

Olive tree pruning techniques

One of the main choices to be made by olive growers is the one related to the form of training they wish to give to the plants. What is the reason for this decision? For example, the type of plant, the conditions of the soil, the climate of the geographical area in which the olive grove will be inserted, the yield and aesthetic objectives that you want to achieve, the equipment and machinery that can be used in the management of the soil.

An important distinction is that between the pruning of a traditional olive grove and the pruning of a super intensive or intensive one. In addition to the production yield of the plants, the intervention techniques also change in the three cases.

What are the main forms of olive tree farming?

Among the most common ones there is undoubtedly the pruning of the olive tree in a polyconic pot. In this case, from a single trunk branch off from three to six main branches, shaped like a cone. The vegetative and productive production is concentrated on the external part of the branch, facilitating harvesting and pruning operations, while ventilation and lighting of the foliage are favoured. In addition, the pruning of the olive tree with a simplified polyconic pot minimizes the woody structure of the plant and facilitates pruning operations, minimizing time. In addition to this, the other most common shapes are globe, bushy vase, monocone and monotrunk with free foliage.

Ornamental olive tree pruning is used when olive trees are employed to decorate outdoor green spaces, planted in pots or in the garden. Among the most commonly used techniques for these artistic prunings are:

  • the pruning of the umbrella olive tree;
  • the pruning of the olive tree with pom poms, also known as the pruning of the olive tree with antlers;
  • the pruning of the olive tree in a ball.

Hedge olive tree pruning is less traditional, but possible. These plants, in fact, can be used to make hedges of several meters, which grow quickly in height and thicken quickly, adapting to different soils and climates.

 

Avoiding the main mistakes in olive tree pruning

Performing professional pruning operations means knowing how to avoid the most common mistakes in the management of the olive grove. What are they? For example, do not pay attention to the choice of the most appropriate period to carry out this delicate operation, risking doing it too early or too late or at a time when the climatic conditions could stress the plant too much and prevent proper healing of the wounds of the branches. Excessive thinning of the foliage can also be a big risk, because it could create a shock to the plant and compromise its well-being. A lack of in-depth study about pruning schemes and techniques in olive groves is another widespread misstep, which the most experienced olive growers learn to avoid with time and practice in the field.

A typical mistake, particularly dangerous for the yield of the olive grove, is also the choice of unprofessional tools, with poor cutting capacity or unreliable. In fact, making deburred or inaccurate cuts puts the healing of the wound and the well-being of the tree at great risk. In addition, the use of shears, pruners, saws or loppers that are not sufficiently technologically advanced tires the operator by subjecting him to great physical effort, which can compromise his health.

For this reason, the advice is to choose only tools whose quality is guaranteed by the solidity and historicity of the company that produces them. In the Campagnola product lines, for example, you will find everything you need for efficient, safe and high-performance olive grove pruning.

Contact us to find out more or go to one of our sales and service stores to get to know our solutions up close!

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