2336 



OLIVE 



OLIVE 



rows. Many will not germinate the first year and many 

 not at all. 



Much time may be saved by clipping off the apex 

 of the olive pit. Seeds treated in this way will germinate 

 readily in a few weeks. By means of a simple device 

 originated by the California Experiment Station, this 

 clipping can be done very rapidly (Fig. 2572). 



2572. Device for clipping olive seeds. 



The second or third year, the young seedlings are 

 transplanted to nursery rows in good rich soil, where 

 they are budded or grafted the following spring. One or 

 two years later, they are ready to be planted in the 

 orchard. 



The planting distances vary with the nature of the 

 soil and of the variety. The trees in some orchards are 

 planted as near as 20 feet, but more at 24 to 30. The 

 olive is very long in reaching its full size, and some 

 growers plant at 20 or 24 feet with the intention of 

 taking out three-quarters of the trees when they begin 

 to crowd, leaving them 40 to 48 feet apart. It is not, 

 however, until the trees are twenty-five or thirty years 

 old that they reach full size, and most growers prefer 

 to plant at intermediate distances of about 30 to 36 

 feet. In France, the distances adopted vary from 15 

 feet in the most northerly districts to 24 feet in the 

 more southerly. In Algeria, from 30 to 36 feet are 

 the usual distances, while in Tunisia 45 feet and even 

 60 to 72 feet are adopted, usually with intercalary an- 

 nual crops. Most of the olives in California are planted 

 in solid orchards, but many are used as avenue and 

 border trees. 



Seedling olives are grafted in the nursery. This may 

 be done when the seedlings are one year old, by means of 

 a side- or whip-graft in early spring, or of a twig-bud 

 after the sap is flowing freely. The graft is made at or 

 near the surface of the ground. Older seedlings may be 

 crown-grafted or twig-budded higher up in late spring. 

 Old trees may be grafted to change to a more desirable 

 variety. Much grafting of this kind has been done in 

 California, the large pickling varieties being grafted on 

 small oil olives or on the strong-growing Redding, 

 which bears a worthless fruit and was at one time 

 planted largely in the mistaken belief that it was the 

 large-fruited Picholine. The trees may be cut back to 

 the main branches and crown-grafted immediately or 

 allowed to form a growth of new shoots, which are 

 budded the following year. Much care and work are 

 necessary for several years to prevent the growth of 

 suckers from the old stocks. 



Cultivation and pruning. 



The planting and cultivation of the olive require the 

 same care as in the case of other fruits. Where the rain- 

 fall is ample, thorough cultivation may insure sufficient 

 soil-moisture, but in most cases irrigation is necessary. 

 Cutting back and the removal of ill-placed branches is 

 advisable during the first and second years, and the 

 tree should be allowed to make only one trunk. After 

 the second year, the lower branches should be gradually 

 removed until a clean trunk of 2 or 3 feet is formed. 

 Cutting back and thinning out of the branches should 

 be practised at every winter pruning in order to give 

 the tree the required symmetrical arrangement of 

 branches. For trees which tend to become close and 

 compact, thinning out of branches is chiefly needed; for 



those which tend to become weak and elongated, more 

 cutting back is necessary. 



By the fifth or sixth year, the framework of the tree 

 should be formed and paying crops produced. The 

 methods of pruning bearing trees vary greatly in various 

 countries. In many, a very severe cutting-back is 

 practised every other year and, as a consequence, the 

 olive bears only on alternate years. The origin of 

 this custom seems to have been due to the olive-fly 

 and scale, which can be fairly well controlled by this 

 means. Trees which are not pruned at all also tend to 

 bear only every other year and to have small inferior 

 fruit. As the olive bears only on the two-year-old 

 wood, like the peach, annual pruning is necessary for 

 annual crops. 



The most approved method in California is an annual 

 pruning which consists principally of thinning out from 

 one-third to one-half of the small branches. As much as 

 possible of the removals should be of branches which 

 have borne the preceding year, especially those which 

 have made little new growth. Injured or ill-placed 

 branches are removed and the fruiting surface spread 

 as uniformly over the tree as possible. Vigorous trees 

 should be pruned less than those which are. weak and 

 removals made in such a way that light and air reach 

 every part of the bearing wood. 



Thorough clean cultivation is needed by the olive 

 and is practised as with other orchard-trees in Cali- 

 fornia. The olive will live with less water than most 

 orchard-trees, but for the production of good crops of 

 large fruit an abundant water-supply is necessary. 

 When the moisture is inadequate, the blossoms do not 

 set well and the fruit is small. Most of the paying 

 orchards are irrigated. Frequent and shallow irriga- 

 tions are unfavorable to the health and bearing of the 



2573. /, Large knots on still vigorous branch of old olive tree. 

 2, Young tree planted to replace one destroyed by knot. 3, Small 

 knots on much weakened branch. 



