It is easy to prune an olive tree for table olives. Just follow these Six steps so that your tree grows large olives every year.
1. Keep the tree open to allow air flow, they do not 'like' wet leaves.
2. An olive tree will grow from where you cut it. There is around 5 or 6 new branches growing as a consequence of this pruning cut (painted blue)
3. Last years growth will be this years fruit. in the above photo you can see the olives growing in the center of the branch. Next year they will be growing further to the left.
4. Prune every year otherwise your tree will too big to manage, & all the fruit will be high up.
5. Prune heavily to set fewer fruit so the fruit grow larger. Make your pruning cuts low in the tree so the fruit grows low on the tree. In this photo you can see the new growth from the red cut two years ago. The blue cut will grow new wood that is one year behind, which is how we 'renew' a tree over a 7-10 year period.
6. Use a Pruning Paint like the one above to seal the cuts. This stops disease getting into the tree.
