I Have A Lot Of Olive Trees Which Have Grown Up Around The Old Stumps
Categories:
Fruit Growing
They are large trees and some of them have six or eight trunks. Should I
cut away all but one trunk or let them alone? There are some of the
trees with small olives; others none.
If the olive trees which were originally planted were trained at first
and still have a good trunk and tree form, the suckers which have
intruded from below should be removed. If, however, the trees have been
allowed to grow many
branches from below, so that there is really no
single tree remaining, make a selection of four or five of the best
shoots and grow the trees in large bush form, shortening in the higher
growth so as to bring the fruit within easier reach and reduce the cost
of picking. You can also develop a single shoot into a tree as you
suggest. Of course, you must determine whether the trees as they now
stand are of a variety which is worth growing. If they are all bearing
very small fruit, it would be a question whether they were worth keeping
at all, because grafting on the kind of growth which you describe would
be unlikely to yield satisfactory tree forms, though you might get a
good deal of fruit from them.