January in the Olive Grove

​Happy New Year to all our Marlborough Olive Growers.  We are looking forward to an abundant year in 2025.
After scorching heat and drying winds before the Christmas break the weather has done an about face and calmed down to cooler, cloudier days with a bit of rain tossed in for good measure.  These conditions are much more tolerable for your olive trees.
January is the month that you will get a good idea of fruit set on your trees.  There will be small, pea sized fruits in amongst the foliage that you may be able to see if you look closely.  It is a bit like ‘seek and find’ at the moment with the olives the same colour as the foliage but they will grow steadily to a more visible size over the next 3 months.

​With all the very strong growth over summer it is worth monitoring your mature trees for drooping branches and trimming those back now before the crop load gets heavier.  Keep a good manageable shape, always with harvest in mind, and keep foliage up off the ground. 
Small newly planted trees will have put on a lot of canopy growth so these may need to be shaped into a balanced structured framework.  You can always use spacers between branches of new trees to encourage them into a good form.  Trim up an old piece of branch with a fork in it, jam that against the trunk and wedge the new supple branch in the direction you want it to grow. Re check any staking of new trees, its amazing how quickly they grow at this time of year.
This is a critical time to ensure your trees get adequate water.  New trees are very susceptible to dry conditions until they get their roots down so ensure they get a good deep water regularly. 
Marlborough weather being rather changeable of late we will no doubt be back to hot and dry again before the month is out.  Enjoy the shade of your olive trees and keep searching for those elusive little olives and their promise of abundance.