HOW TO PRUNE FOR BETTER FRUITING SIMPLIFIED AND IN PICTURES
to start off the canopy was really dense with no light showing through in many areas. The tools for pruning were a bow saw and secateurs, and a good ladder of course.
all growth that is not olive bearing must be removed because it takes up the tree's resources for producing olives. Remove all small twigs growing on the trunk, you can often pluck them off by hand, and remove all the straight vertical suckers, and those drooping down from the trunk. The best branches for bearing are not absolutely vertical, but sloping outwards from the trunk, some prune in steps over consecutive years, cutting the vertical above a horizontal offshoot, than cutting that after a new vertical, its called up and out in the Mediterranean Gardening Society page.
after three days of pruning, the canopy is getting lighter, until the sky shows blue, to let sunlight into the tree. cut in a vase pruning style, and this small tree has borne thirty five kilograms of olives in one season. Though it does grow in a vermi-compost production bed.
The olive branch project !
The olive project begins: the magnificent bearer we are lucky to have in the garden (variety : Black Mission Olive) has just come into flower, therefore Stephan is going to prune this weekend or next. So today I unpacked my notes on olive propagation (well e-files really) and condensed a lot of reading into a two page set of instructions. This has taught me that we will mainly get green cuttings, so later in the year, after fruit have set, I'm going to make cuttings again, for semi hardwood as they have a more successful reputation. I would like to share my set of instructions for propagation, if it could paste here, but it will not due to formatting problems.
What was the original idea behind the olive project
As to what I mean by "the olive project" ..... its an idea. I have to blame this on Diane Paulse ! a long time ago, while I was living in Salt River, we were brainstorming, as one tends to do with her, and we went and had a look at this wind mill that I'd always seen in the distance and never been close to. The lovely photograph she took is on facebook. Then because where I live in Goodwood there is this black mission olive tree which is a magnificent bearer, I thought of taking the branches from its yearly prunings and using them for cuttings. At the 90% rooting success rate one can reach under the right conditions we'd soon have a whole olive grove (talk about counting chickens) and I thought it would be great to plant them along the street in Salt River, and create the greatest urban olive grove in the world... tourism... job creation etc. I worked out that twenty trees could support one previously unemployed person, through olive pickling. There would also be an olive harvest, with olives being transported across the rivers on donkeys and stone ground for oil (the best way of producing it) at the old windmill in Ndabeni. I got pretty fired up and spoke to the local (retired) Imam who got pretty excited too. He told me that the olive has such symbolic significance in Islam, for instance in healing, and he uses the oil in his healing practice. I discovered that restoration of the river basins Liesbeeck etc. was the mayor's special project and since olives are indigenous (the fruit bearing ones are the same species as our indigenous olive which bears tiny pea sized olives, they have just been cultivated over millennia for larger fruit) they could be incorporated as street and river trees in the whole area. However, further attempts to get people involved fell flat and I forgot about the idea. I'm not good at getting people behind me, always having been a bit of a loner-outsider.
The second life of the project
Then recently I met the young horticulturist who buys worms from us and he was prepared to lend me a bottom heater free of charge, for the propagation. And my sister Lizza found two individuals located down in the Phillipi horticultural area, who are active in the food security movement who would take my olive trees in the future, and the idea became revitalised again. So now I'm just quietly going to see how easy it is to propagate them. I'm going to compare cuttings, soft and semi-hard, and seeds.
Third life
Steve decided to prune, and Diane offered to help propagate which really got me motivated. the pruning took four days. I'll be posting instructions and a video on how to prune soon, it takes time to put it together lucidly... and the end of each day I'd lift the piles of olive branches scattered on the cement, place them in a bucket of water, bury my face in them and smell the gardenias and herbs (they do smell of gardenias perhaps its the flowers) and then trimmed them down (see my collated propagation notes below, I will sort them out in due course too) and placed them in soil.
Diane prepared propagation beds in an alley at her home, and I used two large plastic trays, covered with clear plastic sheets, to maintain humidity...in an alley at my home...I thought it would be semi shaded but I've had to use shade-net, it gets really hot in the sun. I don't have the equipment for spraying water (misting) and I think bottom heat is a bit unnecessary in this weather !
Pruning
in the meantime this amazing website has a good description of pruning http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/olives.html#1
What was the original idea behind the olive project
As to what I mean by "the olive project" ..... its an idea. I have to blame this on Diane Paulse ! a long time ago, while I was living in Salt River, we were brainstorming, as one tends to do with her, and we went and had a look at this wind mill that I'd always seen in the distance and never been close to. The lovely photograph she took is on facebook. Then because where I live in Goodwood there is this black mission olive tree which is a magnificent bearer, I thought of taking the branches from its yearly prunings and using them for cuttings. At the 90% rooting success rate one can reach under the right conditions we'd soon have a whole olive grove (talk about counting chickens) and I thought it would be great to plant them along the street in Salt River, and create the greatest urban olive grove in the world... tourism... job creation etc. I worked out that twenty trees could support one previously unemployed person, through olive pickling. There would also be an olive harvest, with olives being transported across the rivers on donkeys and stone ground for oil (the best way of producing it) at the old windmill in Ndabeni. I got pretty fired up and spoke to the local (retired) Imam who got pretty excited too. He told me that the olive has such symbolic significance in Islam, for instance in healing, and he uses the oil in his healing practice. I discovered that restoration of the river basins Liesbeeck etc. was the mayor's special project and since olives are indigenous (the fruit bearing ones are the same species as our indigenous olive which bears tiny pea sized olives, they have just been cultivated over millennia for larger fruit) they could be incorporated as street and river trees in the whole area. However, further attempts to get people involved fell flat and I forgot about the idea. I'm not good at getting people behind me, always having been a bit of a loner-outsider.
The second life of the project
Then recently I met the young horticulturist who buys worms from us and he was prepared to lend me a bottom heater free of charge, for the propagation. And my sister Lizza found two individuals located down in the Phillipi horticultural area, who are active in the food security movement who would take my olive trees in the future, and the idea became revitalised again. So now I'm just quietly going to see how easy it is to propagate them. I'm going to compare cuttings, soft and semi-hard, and seeds.
Third life
Steve decided to prune, and Diane offered to help propagate which really got me motivated. the pruning took four days. I'll be posting instructions and a video on how to prune soon, it takes time to put it together lucidly... and the end of each day I'd lift the piles of olive branches scattered on the cement, place them in a bucket of water, bury my face in them and smell the gardenias and herbs (they do smell of gardenias perhaps its the flowers) and then trimmed them down (see my collated propagation notes below, I will sort them out in due course too) and placed them in soil.
Diane prepared propagation beds in an alley at her home, and I used two large plastic trays, covered with clear plastic sheets, to maintain humidity...in an alley at my home...I thought it would be semi shaded but I've had to use shade-net, it gets really hot in the sun. I don't have the equipment for spraying water (misting) and I think bottom heat is a bit unnecessary in this weather !
Pruning
in the meantime this amazing website has a good description of pruning http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/olives.html#1
ROUGH NOTES OFF THE INTERNET - growing trees from cuttings (FOUR DIFFERENT WEBSITES WHOSE URL'S I'VE LOST, WILL REFERENCE PROPERLY IN FUTURE)
WHAT TYPE OF TREE
a parent tree 3 years or older.
WHEN TO TAKE CUTTINGS conflicting information on timing1) Softwood = fresh, new growth in spring or before the stem has matured and formed hardened bark.2) Semi-hardwood cuttings = mid- to late summer, bark has begun to mature but before it has fully hardened. semi-hardwood cuttings are slightly hardier and less prone to heat stress and failure (3 websites concur) after fruit has set, blossoms faded3) Hardwood cuttings = two- to three-year-old wood in winter. root slowly high failure rate.
August or September
A less amateury quite horty site says: roots and shoots of olive trees grow rapidly during late spring and early summer when soil moisture is relatively high, soil temperatures are warm (above 70° F), and air temperatures are not excessively hot (between 85° and 95° F.) Towards the end of this rapid growth is the prime time to take cuttings, during the months of late June and early July (but this is not spring and early summer, rather mid summer). (with us that would be december january, 3 other websites concur on mid to late summer semi-hardwood, after fruit set and blossom) Wood should be collected from vigorously growing trees
TAKING THE CUTTINGSsharp knife clean, sanitized pruning shears
selected from healthy (4) branches having numerous leaves and no active flowers or buds.tip (2) of a healthy olive branch, have also gotten ‘tip cuttings’ to root, but only when material is very limited, often the wood is not mature enough to root. A straight stem with multiple leaves important for symmetrical growth habit.
Softwood - green bark,semi-hardwood cuttings - light brown and pliant tip.stem diameter of 1/4 inch (3 concur) to 1/2 inch in diameter pencil-width cutting6 - 8 inches long (4 varied but convergent agreement) semi-hardwood cuttingHardwood - dark, hardened bark, 1 inch thick and 8 to 12 inches long
Sever the cutting 1/4 below a pair of leaves Sever it 1/8 inch below a leaf nodeif you cannot pot at once - Pre-trim and place in plastic bags with moist sawdust, and process the material as cuttings as soon as possible. It is possible to keep the wood for several days under refrigeration without any problems. pot the cutting soon after gathering it to limit the chance of moisture loss.
note on wild oliveCuttings less than 10mm need to be treated with root stimulating hormones.No success with any cutting larger.
POTTING MEDIUM AND CONTAINERS8-inch nursery container or standard nursery flats holding up to 70 cuttings or trays that keep root systems separate for less transplant shock50/50 washed sand and milled peat (2). equal parts peat, perlite and sand 90% perlite and 10% peat mossdrench and press out excess water (2)fresh (2) to avoid spreading fungusINITIAL TREATMENT OF THE CUTTINGSRemove all the leaves from the base of the cutting (4 concur), bottom 1/3, leaving just six or so at the tip (2 to 4 sets of leaves remaining) (so has 3+ sets of leaves, remove 1st set).Some "wound" the lower portion of the stem, making slight cuts with a sharp object, or sever or hammer it to crack it 1/8 inch below a leaf node.
Hormone powders (4) for hard to propagate species rooting rate of 20% such as 'Sevillano’ use Root Tone #40. Others are as high as 90%. use quick dips of 3,000 ppm indole butyric acid (IBA) worked for oil cultivars, such as 'Lucca,' 'Frantoio,' 'Moralolo,' 'Mission,' and 'Picual or 0.2-percent IBA rooting talc (2).
Stand upright in rooting medium. Push cutting down so that the bare leaf nodes are under the soil. Firm the mix against the stem. Do not let the remaining leaves touch the soil.Water the olive cutting deeply.
PROPAGATION WITH BOTTOM HEAT AND MISTfiltered sunlight (3) direct intense sunlight often causes desiccation well-ventilated cold frame Air temperature up to 9O° F, below 7O° F poor rooting.
wetness critical - never letting it dry out (2) Mist foliage (4) twice daily (2). water soil if sand dry in top inch.. with no mist system cover with plastic film, as close to the cuttings as possible to reduce air circulation and water loss. plastic bag with the top removed mini greenhouse
bottom heat critical (3) in getting the cuttings to root rapidly. propagation mat 70 degrees (2) 75 (1) Fahrenheit.
TIME TO ROOTING45 days (1), 1.5-2 months (45-60 days)(2) 90 days or three months (2) but may continue for up to six months or longergently tug10 to 12 (3-4 m 70- 120 d) new growth on the cutting.Turn off the propagation mat after it roots.Continue to grow it in the cold frame with weekly watering during the winter.
TRANSPLANTINGContinue watering and caring for your new sapling with the heat offWhen several healthy white roots are present, you can transplant into bigger containers.Re-pot the olive cutting after 10 to 12 weeks (new growth). Fertilize at re-potting.some growers will transplant into deep sixpacks, also one gallon containers in springGrow it under lightly shaded conditions with 1 inch of water per week during the summer.Transplant it into a permanent bed in autumn.
leaf dropping, soil preferences etc. notes from a bonzai site on wild olive
The olive also appears to like loam- red sand, possible becauseof the water retention properties of loam. The problem withloam is that it may come with weeds.iii. PH should be alkaline above 7. Bonemeal will raise alkalinity.i. Wateringi. Can withstand long periods of drought.ii. Watering well in one season will produce good results in thefollowing season.j. Collected trees.i. Best place to get stock, due to the slowness of growth.ii. Stressed trees can take 3 years to generate leaf growth.1. A boost of heat in a hot house often brings the tree outof dormancy.2. Placing the collected tree in a plastic bag also producedthe hot house effect.3. Brewers yeast is also said to stimulate the tree.4. Placing a hessian bag over the tree takes away light sothe tree has to produce leaves to photosynthesis.Growth starts after the roots have re-established themselves i.e.when leaf growth starts the roots have stared as well and the treeis not simply using its internal stored energy.iii. Treatment by putting the collected tree in full water withmedicine (Kickstart) helps rejuvenate the tree. Waite for themoisture to appear on the branch wounds before sealing thewound.iv. Rough styling may start once the tree has showed signs ofrecovery. Do not disturb the roots as this will set you back.v. Collected trees often have dead wood.vi. Root hormone treatment (dip & grow, Seradex) helps reestablishthe trees roots.k. Climate/placementi. Love full sun.ii. Are frost hardy.iii. If grown in partial shade watch out for thrips.iv. Moving from sun to shade will have no dramatic effect.Moving from shade to sun will cause all the leaf burn, leafdrop, then leaf replacement. Moving from inside to outside andvice versa will cause leaf drop until the tree re-acclimatises.v. Leaves in full sun miniaturise and thicken compared to shade orinside.vi. Olives had survived for over 150 days in offices, with regularwater. Trees survived with foliage.
a parent tree 3 years or older.
WHEN TO TAKE CUTTINGS conflicting information on timing1) Softwood = fresh, new growth in spring or before the stem has matured and formed hardened bark.2) Semi-hardwood cuttings = mid- to late summer, bark has begun to mature but before it has fully hardened. semi-hardwood cuttings are slightly hardier and less prone to heat stress and failure (3 websites concur) after fruit has set, blossoms faded3) Hardwood cuttings = two- to three-year-old wood in winter. root slowly high failure rate.
August or September
A less amateury quite horty site says: roots and shoots of olive trees grow rapidly during late spring and early summer when soil moisture is relatively high, soil temperatures are warm (above 70° F), and air temperatures are not excessively hot (between 85° and 95° F.) Towards the end of this rapid growth is the prime time to take cuttings, during the months of late June and early July (but this is not spring and early summer, rather mid summer). (with us that would be december january, 3 other websites concur on mid to late summer semi-hardwood, after fruit set and blossom) Wood should be collected from vigorously growing trees
TAKING THE CUTTINGSsharp knife clean, sanitized pruning shears
selected from healthy (4) branches having numerous leaves and no active flowers or buds.tip (2) of a healthy olive branch, have also gotten ‘tip cuttings’ to root, but only when material is very limited, often the wood is not mature enough to root. A straight stem with multiple leaves important for symmetrical growth habit.
Softwood - green bark,semi-hardwood cuttings - light brown and pliant tip.stem diameter of 1/4 inch (3 concur) to 1/2 inch in diameter pencil-width cutting6 - 8 inches long (4 varied but convergent agreement) semi-hardwood cuttingHardwood - dark, hardened bark, 1 inch thick and 8 to 12 inches long
Sever the cutting 1/4 below a pair of leaves Sever it 1/8 inch below a leaf nodeif you cannot pot at once - Pre-trim and place in plastic bags with moist sawdust, and process the material as cuttings as soon as possible. It is possible to keep the wood for several days under refrigeration without any problems. pot the cutting soon after gathering it to limit the chance of moisture loss.
note on wild oliveCuttings less than 10mm need to be treated with root stimulating hormones.No success with any cutting larger.
POTTING MEDIUM AND CONTAINERS8-inch nursery container or standard nursery flats holding up to 70 cuttings or trays that keep root systems separate for less transplant shock50/50 washed sand and milled peat (2). equal parts peat, perlite and sand 90% perlite and 10% peat mossdrench and press out excess water (2)fresh (2) to avoid spreading fungusINITIAL TREATMENT OF THE CUTTINGSRemove all the leaves from the base of the cutting (4 concur), bottom 1/3, leaving just six or so at the tip (2 to 4 sets of leaves remaining) (so has 3+ sets of leaves, remove 1st set).Some "wound" the lower portion of the stem, making slight cuts with a sharp object, or sever or hammer it to crack it 1/8 inch below a leaf node.
Hormone powders (4) for hard to propagate species rooting rate of 20% such as 'Sevillano’ use Root Tone #40. Others are as high as 90%. use quick dips of 3,000 ppm indole butyric acid (IBA) worked for oil cultivars, such as 'Lucca,' 'Frantoio,' 'Moralolo,' 'Mission,' and 'Picual or 0.2-percent IBA rooting talc (2).
Stand upright in rooting medium. Push cutting down so that the bare leaf nodes are under the soil. Firm the mix against the stem. Do not let the remaining leaves touch the soil.Water the olive cutting deeply.
PROPAGATION WITH BOTTOM HEAT AND MISTfiltered sunlight (3) direct intense sunlight often causes desiccation well-ventilated cold frame Air temperature up to 9O° F, below 7O° F poor rooting.
wetness critical - never letting it dry out (2) Mist foliage (4) twice daily (2). water soil if sand dry in top inch.. with no mist system cover with plastic film, as close to the cuttings as possible to reduce air circulation and water loss. plastic bag with the top removed mini greenhouse
bottom heat critical (3) in getting the cuttings to root rapidly. propagation mat 70 degrees (2) 75 (1) Fahrenheit.
TIME TO ROOTING45 days (1), 1.5-2 months (45-60 days)(2) 90 days or three months (2) but may continue for up to six months or longergently tug10 to 12 (3-4 m 70- 120 d) new growth on the cutting.Turn off the propagation mat after it roots.Continue to grow it in the cold frame with weekly watering during the winter.
TRANSPLANTINGContinue watering and caring for your new sapling with the heat offWhen several healthy white roots are present, you can transplant into bigger containers.Re-pot the olive cutting after 10 to 12 weeks (new growth). Fertilize at re-potting.some growers will transplant into deep sixpacks, also one gallon containers in springGrow it under lightly shaded conditions with 1 inch of water per week during the summer.Transplant it into a permanent bed in autumn.
leaf dropping, soil preferences etc. notes from a bonzai site on wild olive
The olive also appears to like loam- red sand, possible becauseof the water retention properties of loam. The problem withloam is that it may come with weeds.iii. PH should be alkaline above 7. Bonemeal will raise alkalinity.i. Wateringi. Can withstand long periods of drought.ii. Watering well in one season will produce good results in thefollowing season.j. Collected trees.i. Best place to get stock, due to the slowness of growth.ii. Stressed trees can take 3 years to generate leaf growth.1. A boost of heat in a hot house often brings the tree outof dormancy.2. Placing the collected tree in a plastic bag also producedthe hot house effect.3. Brewers yeast is also said to stimulate the tree.4. Placing a hessian bag over the tree takes away light sothe tree has to produce leaves to photosynthesis.Growth starts after the roots have re-established themselves i.e.when leaf growth starts the roots have stared as well and the treeis not simply using its internal stored energy.iii. Treatment by putting the collected tree in full water withmedicine (Kickstart) helps rejuvenate the tree. Waite for themoisture to appear on the branch wounds before sealing thewound.iv. Rough styling may start once the tree has showed signs ofrecovery. Do not disturb the roots as this will set you back.v. Collected trees often have dead wood.vi. Root hormone treatment (dip & grow, Seradex) helps reestablishthe trees roots.k. Climate/placementi. Love full sun.ii. Are frost hardy.iii. If grown in partial shade watch out for thrips.iv. Moving from sun to shade will have no dramatic effect.Moving from shade to sun will cause all the leaf burn, leafdrop, then leaf replacement. Moving from inside to outside andvice versa will cause leaf drop until the tree re-acclimatises.v. Leaves in full sun miniaturise and thicken compared to shade orinside.vi. Olives had survived for over 150 days in offices, with regularwater. Trees survived with foliage.