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Cultivating Olives

Categories: Fruit Growing

How deep should an olive orchard be plowed? I was told that by plowing

deep I would injure my trees, in cutting up small rootlets and fibres

which the olive extends through the surface soil. Is this so or not?



Plowing olives is like plowing other trees, the purpose being to get a

workable soil deep enough to stand five or six inches of summer

cultivation, usually. If you have old trees which have never been deeply

plowed, you would destroy a lot of roots by deep plowing, and you should

not start in and rip up all the land at once. You can gradually deepen

the plowing, sacrificing fewer roots at a time, without injuring the

trees if they are otherwise well circumstanced. Small rootlets and

fibres in the surface soil do not count; they are quickly replaced, and

if you do not destroy them, the whole surface soil, if moist enough,

will be filled with a network of roots which will subsequently make

decent working of the soil impossible.



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