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OBJECTIVES OF PRUNING
Train and Shape Olive trees, Maintain or Increase Production and Improve Harvest Efficiency
Training helps giving the tree the optimal shape to allow for efficient harvest as well as achieving early crops.
Once the trees have reached their optimum canopy volume for the environmental conditions of the area, it is likely that the yields could start declining. This is due to the fact that the inner part of the canopy does not receive sufficient sunlight, which causes defoliation, resulting in a low Leaf to Wood Ratio.
If the tree grows above its optimum size, it creates serious issues for the harvester machines. The tree becomes too high and too wide for the machines, it has thick branches that can cause damage on the picking heads and also reduces the removal efficiency of the machine as well as slows down the harvesting speed.
It is a fact that to produce fruit, Olive trees need to grow and produce new branches each year; therefore the trees need to grow every year. It is here where pruning becomes a very useful management tool.
Pruning helps increasing Fruit Size, Oil Yield, Light Interception and Leaf to Wood Ratio, it promotes new growth, and reduces water and fertiliser requirements.
see the full article at:
1- Tree Training
Objectives: Achieve early start of production with higher yields, increased number of production years, higher fruit quality, prepare the trees for the type of harvester that is going to be used on the grove.
Training takes place during the first 3 years of the tree life.
During the first year minimum pruning is required (provided the trees come with a suitable shape from the nursery), lower and vigorous branches competing with the leader should be removed. The aim is to encourage a straight vertical trunk with horizontal branches coming out. Water shoots must be removed to stop competition for water and nutrients.
On the second and third year the aim is to remove lower branches below 600-700-800-1000mm (must be done gradually).
“Always keep in mind that if we prune too hard is because either we came too late or because we do not know what to do”.
There must be a balance between what is taken out and what is left on. If we remove too much canopy, we have a negative effect on the tree, because we are removing photosynthetic area setting the tree back for a while until it starts growing again.
Light pruning is a process by which we only take a small amount of foliage (a couple of small branches), therefore we are not affecting tree balance. That is why it can be done from August until the end of May.
Heavier pruning in this process we take a large amounts of foliage therefore we are promoting a stronger reaction from the tree, this makes it susceptible to frost damage. That is why we should be delaying it until the end of September unless the weather is warmer. If that is the case we could start at the beginning of September.
Tree training not only involves light and heavy pruning but also tree tying and skirting.
2- Production
This type of pruning is performed on mature trees once they have reached full size. It has the aim of balancing the tree to obtain uniform and constant production every year.
As we all know when trees are young there is a larger number of non productive branches and that is because those branches are actively growing, but once they have reached their potential, they stop growing and start producing fruits, after a while those branches are exhausted and they stop producing, therefore they should be removed, to encourage new growth and renew the tree.
If bloom is light, pruning can be confined to non-productive parts of the tree, preserving as much bloom and potential crop as possible. In years of heavy bloom, pruning can be more severe without excessive crop removal.
Time of pruning: bud break until early December.
3- After Harvest (Cleaning)
The aim is to clean up the large broken branches that are left after the harvesters have gone through the grove. We could avoid it by spraying the trees with copper after harvest and wait until spring to take the damaged wood out.
The teeth on Silky Saws are like super sharp little chisels that are dragged across the surface of a branch with each chisel taking a bite out of the wood it is cutting. Using Japanese ingenuity, saws cut on the pull stroke and to stop the saws binding they developed a process that is called among other things, taper or hollow grinding. What they did was get a big round grinding stone and ground their saw blades so the thickest part of the blade was at the teeth and it tapered into the middle of the blade and then thickened slightly to the top of the blade. This meant that the blade was thickest at the teeth, less thick at the top and thinnest in the middle. The grinding technique produced a saw that allowed a thinner saw to cut through a branch quicker, without binding.
When you cut green wood with a Silky Saw or pruning saws and Secateurs, you are going to get sap on the blade area. The more you cut, the more sap you are going to get a build-up of and it's most noticeable in the middle (from top to bottom) of the saw blade. Remember how the middle of the blade is the thinnest part of the blade. It is easier for the sap to stick there as it isn?t being rubbed against as much. So that night, you put the saw back in the scabbard and pick it up again the next day and do some more pruning and shaping of trees and bushes. Overnight the sap dries and hardens and is easier for the sap to stick to the blade again the next day... so the process continues. Soon you think your saws are getting blunt because it is much harder than when you first purchased to cut through a branch. With all the sap build-up, you are trying to pull a blade through a cut that is now thinner than the blade with its sap build-up.
The solution is 2 minutes of TLC for your saw blades at the end of the day with the Saw Cleaner solution. This anti-bacterial organic oil spray based on Tea Tree Oil is the solution for removing sap from Saw blades and sticky substances. We use it, we swear by it and we have used it to make sap covered Saws and Secateurs look and cut like new again.? ?View before and after images above.
Sap build up is often mistaken for blade dullness, but it is actually the main cause of reduced cutting performance in pruning saws and secateurs. Because the blade is thinnest in the middle, sap easily accumulates, hardens, and increases friction, making cutting more difficult while also increasing the risk of rust and corrosion.
Using the Saw Cleaner – Tea Tree Environmental Solution 100 mL Spray helps remove sap and resin, reduce bacteria and mould, and protect blades from rust. Regular cleaning with this natural tea tree–based formula supports tool hygiene, maintains sharp cutting performance, and extends the life of pruning equipment.
