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.