Whilst waiting for the olive fruits to reach the perfect stage for picking, the work in the orchards never stops. One of the things that demand attention at the moment is the preparation of the young orchards for the upcoming winter. Humidity and strong winds may take their toll on the still not fully developed plants, therefore the need to prune the young trees.
The benefits of such activity are various: by opening a bit the branches, more air is allowed to circulate and thererfore smaller the chances of fungi infections (some info on the main troublemaker
here). Another positive point is that less sail area lowers the chances of strong winter winds tearing apart branches or the whole tree top. Lastly, we need to start and form the olive tree top in a multiple cone (that's a huge topic to discuss...).
Anyway, it's easier to understand when seen, so here are some pictures:
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| As you can see, there's a branch developing at ground level (we do not want that), and the tree top is a bit busy |
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| After the haircut |
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| Here we have an obvious imbalance, with one of the side branches taking over |
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| As you can see here it is almost as thick as the trunk |
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| End result |
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| Before |
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| After |
Obviously, spending quite some time in the orchard gave me the chance to cath some pictures of the wildlife (the lower air temperature made them easier to shoot I must say)
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| A horn viper youngster, more info here |
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| Obviously frightened by my presence, it hid under some vegetation |
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| A dragonfly |
And at the end of the day, I was given the chance to enjoy a beautiful sunset:
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