🌱 Cultivation
Olive Cultivation: Establishing, Pruning and Irrigating a Grove
How is an olive grove established, when are trees pruned, and how are irrigation and fertilisation planned? The practical steps of olive growing, from nursery tree to harvest.
The olive tolerates neglect, which is why mistakes in cultivation do not show up immediately — they return a few seasons later as lost yield. This section covers the field side of production, from decisions about establishing a grove to pruning, irrigation and fertilisation.
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Fertilising Olives: From Soil Analysis to an Annual Programme
How to read a soil test, which nutrients olives need and when, fertigation and organic matter management.
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Irrigating Olives: When, How Much, How
Olive water requirements, critical periods, drip system layout, deficit irrigation and water quality.
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Olive Pruning: Why, When and How
Why olives are pruned, when to do it, formative and production pruning, rejuvenation and high-density systems.
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Building a high-density olive grove: five requirements
High-density planting is not a choice of variety but a five-component system — miss one and it performs worse than a traditional grove. Spacing, yields, the overlooked oil-content trade-off, and who it does not suit.
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Should I switch to organic? A decision guide for olive groves
A four-year trial found no yield difference and put organic 11% ahead economically. But where does the real cost of switching lie, who does it suit, and how do you fight the fly without chemicals?
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Where does an olive sapling come from? From cutting to laboratory
Most table olive varieties will not root, and those that do are clones of one another — defenceless against disease. Tissue culture reports up to 85% success in vitro, but zeatin is expensive.
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Pollination and pollinator varieties in olive
98% of olive flowers drop. Whether the remaining 1-2% holds depends on having a pollinator in the grove. Gemlik is only partially self-fertile: in a single-variety grove harvest falls to a third.
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Nutrient deficiencies in olive: from symptom to element
The same yellowing can mean nitrogen, magnesium, zinc or iron, and the wrong element makes it worse. Standard leaf analysis values, symptom-to-element matching and the boron schedule.
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Organic olive growing: what a four-year trial found
A four-year organic vs conventional trial at Kemalpaşa: no yield difference, 11.5% higher gross margin for organic, lower peroxide value, but higher fruit oil content under conventional management.
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How to Grow an Olive Tree
Soil, climate, watering, pruning and patience. A basic care guide for anyone planting an olive tree.