I have been a bad boy this year, doing very little olive pruning. But I have done a bit, using my axe to take off shoots coming from the base of some trees. For shoots on upper branches I have taken advice from George the Architect and not removed all the shoots, leaving a few of the biggest ones as they will be the olive bearing branches of 2020. But what will the 2019 harvest be like?
The flies are not the killer issue as in 2018 and nor were there hailstorms in the spring to remove the young olives. So if there is no act of God between now and late November it does not look too bad as you can see below. The trees are not sagging with fruit but there is enough and, I’m told, it will be of a higher quality this year so I shall get more for my sacks. We shall see. There is certainly enough to justify a trip to harvest.
