Olivery News

 View this latest promotional DVD from Olives New Zealand the national body for growers in NZ. It gives a good background on growing olives and what it is that makes New Zealand olive oil so good.

You can clearly see the graft splicing into the existing trunk and branches.  It looks to be a good bond.  The bond will be tested in the years ahead as the branch gains weight and volume. This is year three for these Kalamata grafts.  It has been two and a half years since they were grafted, so this year is the first fruit. While its only a small quantity on this graft it is a promising start. Interestingly another graft tree has grown faster than this one it is three meters tall.  It has no fruit this year.  Our theory...

  It is certainly dry, this picture shows the direct result of irrigating the olive trees.  Nice green grass along the row!  A bit of a pain as we now need to mow under the trees only.  We haven't cut the remainder of the lawns for a month, the only things growing are weeds and the grass along the rows. To reduce the need for mowing Morag has planted comfrey in between some of the trees.  We hope this trial planting will grow and keep the weeds down, as well as looking nice.  Will bring you updates on that as...

 Summer rain stats are low.   Just looking at January today, 25mm rain recorded, average is 70mm for January.  But the real surprise for me was the last three Januarys have been 180mm, 200mm and 120mm.  That's too much rain for happy olives!