Sunday 8 February 2009

How do you prune and olive tree – and why?

(Em Portuguese em baixo)

I asked folks from a local tree nursery to come and have a look at our trees. We’d heard it was time to prune everything (before the sap starts running again when it gets warm).

So he came on Thursday despite the rain. It’s rained here most of the last month, but mostly downwards – not horizontally as I remember from Scottish parts.

We started with the olives – we have 6 or 7 of these, all completely overgrown, covered in lichen and devoid of olives in season. These are all signs, I am told, of a tree left to its own devices. Their shoots take up all their energy and too much leafage on top means shade and humidity in the lower sections, leading to mould and lichen and moss, which hardly help out.



The solution Mr Nursery and others have told me: chop down almost everything to about 3m high (now they’re double that height). Paulo says when you cut them back they go into mass growth and reproduction mode in defence – which gives you a bumper crop of the oily stuff. A site I found on the internet said “a bird should be able to fly through it” once you’ve done the pruning.
OK so that’s straightforward enough. In some cases we’ll loose a lot of shade if we give them a military crew cut, so we’re holding back. Probably blowing it by partially cutting.

Anyway, I asked, how many olives do you need to make oil? Turns out the ratio is a whopping 500 kilos of olives will squeeze down into 20 litres of virgino puro… Each tree can produce up to 100kg. (I think I got these number right).

So hang on let’s get this straight: 500 kgs which is probably hours of picking and hauling onto wheelbarrows then to vans or tractors, to a mill (possibly our own, as part of the watermill?) is a meagre 20 litres?? We could go through that in a few months. Jeeez. Can this be worth the hassle ?

Need to find out more.

Photos: Kira testing the climability of an olive. Nikita and me cutting some others back a bit, albeit a bit pathetically.


Como ameixa e oliveira - e vale la pena?

Perguntei a gente a partir de um local viveiro para entrar e dar uma olhada em nossas árvores. Gostaríamos ouvido que era hora de ameixa tudo (antes de a seiva começa a correr novamente quando fica quente).

Então, ele veio na quinta-feira, apesar da chuva. Está chovendo aqui mais do último mês, mas principalmente para baixo - e não horizontalmente como eu me lembro dos partes Escosais.

Nós começamos com as oliveiras - temos 6 ou 7 destes, todos completamente cheio, coberto de liquens e desprovida de azeitonas na temporada. Estes são todos os sinais, segundo me disseram, de uma árvore da esquerda para a sua própria sorte. Sua turiões assumir toda a sua energia e muito folhagens em cima significa sombra e umidade nas seções inferiores, levando a fungos e liquens e musgos, o que não ajuda.

A solução Senhor Berçário e outros já disseram-me: quase tudo corta estabelece a cerca de 3m alta (agora eles são o dobro dessa altura). Paulo diz que quando você retira-los de volta eles vão em massa crescimento e reprodução em modo de defesa - o que lhe dá uma super safra do material oleoso. Um site que encontrei na Internet disse que "um pássaro deve ser capaz de voar por ela" uma vez que você tenha feito a poda.

OK tão simples que é o suficiente. Em alguns casos nós solta um monte de sombra se nós dar-lhes uma corte militar da tripulação, assim que estamos a atrasar. Provavelmente ele sopra por corte parcial.

Enfim, eu perguntei, quantas azeitonas que você precisa para fazer petróleo? Acontece que o rácio é de uma gritante 500 quilos de azeitonas vai apertar-se em 20 litros de virgino puro ... Cada árvore pode produzir até 100 kg. (Acho que eu tenho essas número direita).

Então vamos enforcar em ver se entendi: 500 kg, que provavelmente é hora de escolher e, em seguida, a puxar para wheelbarrows camionetas ou tractores, para uma usina (possivelmente a nossa própria, como parte da azenha?) É um magro 20 litros? Poderíamos ir por que, em poucos meses. Jeeez. Pode este, vale a pena o aborrecimento?

Necessidade de saber mais.

5 comments:

Quinta das Abelhas said...

you should be getting something like 12-15% oil from your olives. if you only reckon on 10% then you'll get 50 litres from your 500kg. it's darn hard work and always always always coincides with freezing rain, but yes, it really is worth it :)

Unknown said...

hello! (hello Abelhas ..) great to read your blog. i'll be more optimistic, you can get 19-20% of olive oil if you pick them late - really ripe, but oil quality will be different. if the olives are not totaly ripe you get less oil but diferent taste.
greetings
visit
http://permacultura-terras-altas.blogspot.com/

Quinta das Abelhas said...

ola joao :)

Magnus said...

Hello João and Sophie (?)
Mega thanks for comments.
I continued to prune all this week. I have a LOT of wooden stakes for sword fighting practice or making fences now...
So many of the olive trees sprouted a thousands new shoots in the 20 years or so they were left alone, and the trees went very high probably to get some light away from the brambles. Should these be cut down to 3m height?
I have cut most of the young shoots.

On translations of bloggage, I used google translator, then went through it a bit, but it's still "horrible" i've been told. Do you know anyone that wants to help me with translation? A native Portuguese speaker.
I have a lot of new stuff to write...
Ciaozino

Quinta das Abelhas said...

have a look at
http://www.portugalsmallholding.org/2009/01/06/pruning-olives/

i wouldn't like to say to cut them to a certain height, as how much you can cut will depend on the individual tree. we did manage to kill some of our trees by pruning too hard :(

might be worth asking a local to come and give you some advice.