35 Acres of Olives

[C21H30O2]

Hey guys and gals,

I have a few questions for the organic heads or rather I want to run a plan past you guys for review, comments, and critique either directly or in directly. Cannabis has truly sparked a life long love for plants of all kinds. Keep in mind everything that I am proposing I learned of from these forum I am now the care taker of 35 acres of olive trees. The owners are pretty environmentally friendly and wants to go organic.

The soil as of right now is completely dry, hard, red clay hard to stick a shovel through I would like to turn it into dark, loose, rich humus that I can stick my hand through. One of the main selling points for this plan is that the soil will hold more and more water, lowering the water bill which is now substantial because we are watering once a week, olive trees are very drought resistant so I would like to get that down to at;east once a month watering.

So here is the plan:
1) compost made of free horse manure, free leaves from the county bio-char made from free wood and rock dust from a local quarry, hopefully for free

2) growing alfalfa between the trees ( alfalfa has an extremely long tap root which can loosen soil and even go through rock). It is a nitrogen fixing plant and will be cut in the spring to act as a straw mulch protecting my precious humus.

3) growing white clover under trees

I plan to compost in the fields and continue this process for 3 -5 years at which point only alfalfa and clover need to be planted thereafter.

I would really appreciate your comments.
peace.
c21

p.s. I forgot to mention that I will also be companion planting with some other plants which attract parasite wasps which lay their eggs in the pest olive fly so that their young can eat their way out of olive fly muhahahahahah

 

[burningfire]

I thought olive trees prefered soil like that? I am no expert but from what I read I'd be careful about adding too much to the soil.. I saw a documentary on lavender, which actually grows best in the same type of soil and they mulched with pebbles, I don't want to sound like a know-it-all but I would look into inorganic mulch if you want to lower the watering bill

 

[mostnonymouse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive#Growth_and_propagation

I'm sure someone here has some good first-hand knowledge on olive trees though...

 

[jaykush]

now the question is do you want more olives, or higher quality olives, or both.

 

[C21H30O2]

wow, that's an eye opener. Well JK I want both but quality is most important.

 

[h.h.]

How were the trees planted? How were the holes prepared? Is there clay directly around the base?
Keep records if you want certified organic.
the horse shit and the leaves might not be considered organic, depending on the source. After being down for 3 years, I think it's okay.
My olives are in sand with a little horse manure and little mulch. Doesn't seem to mater a lot on the mature trees. I never water them.

 

[Wav3F0rm]

you don't need something with a large taproot as the olive trees have already done that. Greece was transformed because of the push to grow olives. There are places in Greece where olive trees have not grown and the place used to be a lush green and has been transformed into what many think of the Mediterranean area, a dry arid type region. This again is caused by the olive trees single deep taproot, and all the top soil was washed away not being held in place by anything. Olympia is what Greece used to look like, was a very lush place.

This is info you won't really find anywhere, its hard to dig up, and its crazy to think that people changed a landscape so much, even that far back.(granted, its not completely that simple, land was cleared for olive trees also which didn't help)

i'm not sure if that helps any, but a background is always nice.

 

[Rusty420]

 

[h.h.]

I have some fair size surface roots on my olives. I'm sure they have pretty good tap roots as well.
Kind of depends on how they watered initially. A young tree's roots can be teased down to the water table by letting the surface dry in between watering. An older tree that has been over watered takes a hit when the surface is allowed to dry as they have a short tap root and lots of surface roots. Either way, surface roots do develop in the oxygen zone.Too much mulch along with the capillary action of the clay, might hold too much water in this region, depleting the oxygen. If coarser aggregate was used in the planting hole and topped with clay, that region won't hold much water, while the surface will be saturated.
Vertical mulching, outside of the rootzone, may be your best bet. Rock dust may be redundant. Resist using sand as sand + clay= concrete.
Deep rooted plants can do somewhat the same thing, if cut and dropped. Alfalfa, is a hybrid that is a bit of a nutrient whore. It also takes it's share of water. You might opt for some local "weeds". Perhaps buckwheat.
I think you really want more brown matter anyway. My understanding is that green matter promotes a bacterial dominate condition, brown matter will promote a fungal one better suited for trees.
Send me some extra virgins and the oil to go with them.

 

[quadracer]

Make a mobile chicken coop and have some free-range chickens help fertilize the acreage, not to mention all the delicious eggs.

 

[mad librettist]

If I were you I would ask around permaculture circles. You want a guild based on the olive tree - it's worth starting over from scratch with your thinking.

This is a big departure from veggie gardens. Or even farming for veggies.

 

[C21H30O2]

I like the chicken tractor idea, but what can i mulch with that will make it fungal dominant and is cheap.

 

[mad librettist]

what about a goat herd?

I wish I were you right now.

 

[C21H30O2]

ok, what if I ditch the compost and plant buckwheat instead of alfalfa. Also red clover instead of white clover.

 

[C21H30O2]

what about a goat herd?

I wish I were you right now.

goats will eat the olives, but sheep wont...

 

[jaykush]

there are SO many variables in a situation like this. its extremely hard to give accurate advice over the internet.

without seeing the place, the first thing i would do is start planting different types of trees and shrubs. monoculture = bad. you want to get as far away from that as possible. think nitrogen fixing shrubs for a quick effect and an additional crop ( autumn olive or goumi berry for example)

i would also section it off, introduce animals ( goats if the trees are tall, sheep if they are low) as well as some ducks or geese ( chickens will do too much damage at first and be counter productive, they will also try to nest in the trees) and start a rotational grazing/holistic management approach. this will build the soil big time in just a couple of years.

what type of olives are you growing. we have 5 varieties here. i cant wait until i have gallons of my own high quality olive oil/eating olives.

 

[mad librettist]

goat is very tasty, very healthy meat. and hey, you can rent them out for brush clearing.

 

[C21H30O2]

We have 3 varieties of olives many trees are over 80 years old. The two big problems are weeds and water usage. Right now I am mowing and weed wacking 40 acres of olive trees So I want to grow something like clover. we are also watering once a week which i think is ridiculous for olive trees.

JayK, shrubs would be nice but they cant interfere with picking. I was thinking of growing some lavender in-between the trees.

 

[jaykush]

how are you picking them?

lavender is good, as are most Mediterranean herbs.

see the variables are endless.

just think of it this way, if you do it right, you will probably be the only one producing polyculture olives in your area, if not your state.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Hey i just have the one olive tree but it is part of my permaculture garden. My free ranging chooks do scratch away at the base a bit and make themselves a dust bowl. I keep adding compost and mulch but they keep getting back at it. Its no real biggie the tree looks very healthy (especially after i added the compost to the bare roots).

I did plant mine on a bit of a raised hump of soil for extra drainage.

I have a ring of garlic around all my fruit trees. The chooks dont touch it and neither do any native animals or pretty much anything. I dont plan on picking much either, just gonna let it spread out a bit and take a few here and there. It protects against root nematodes and other bad soil bugs apparantly. But then i do live in a high rainfall area and garlic thrives here.

Sounds awesome good luck and i think goats can climb quite high