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| Not all trees produce good olives During the month of May, the olive farmers set to work grafting olive trees. Some trees grow only small olives that are no good for eating or pressing for oil. By grafting bark from a better tree onto the poorer one, the tree will eventually produce better quality olives for harvest. Here is how it is done. First, a suitable donor branch must be found from a good tree. It should be new green wood, approximately 3-5cm diameter and have lots of potential sprouts or "eyes". These eyes are where new shoots will grow from the branch. The donor branch is then cut from the good tree. Only the bark is required for grafting, and a reasonable branch will provide several potential grafts. The tree that is to receive the graft will be cut back completely, leaving only one or two branches with leaves, to ensure the sap continues to rise. With a sharp knife a 4-5cm section of the bark is removed from the complete circumference of the donor branch. The new section of bark is opened and placed on a suitable position on the trunk of the receiving tree. The knife is used to score around three sides of the new bark. The score should be deep enough just to cut through the old bark, so that a section can be opened like a door exposing the wood. The "door" is opened and the graft placed firmly against the wood. The door is then closed over the graft and bound tightly and left for 10 days. After this, the binding is removed and the door cut off by trimming the remaining side, taking care not to dislodge the new graft. |
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A grafted tree is left bare |
A graft is placed |
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| Once the graft is accepted and shoots start
to appear then the remaining old branches can be removed to encourage new
growth. In a similar way, fruit farmers graft different citrus bark onto a trunk, providing a variation of fruit from a single tree. It is not uncommon to see orange and lemons growing on the same trunk! |
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