05 Apr 2021, 20:27
Juan José Mercado Gavilán
Seguimiento
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Tags: Olive tree, extra virgin, olive oil, olive grove, organic oil, oil from jaen

Monitoring of the ECOLOGICAL olive grove. Sprouts at the end of March 2021.

We are once again starting the olive grove monitoring cycle, although it could almost be said that we are continuing it indefinitely.

After the months of harvesting and milling the olives, with a lot of hustle and bustle and little time for other things, we return to agricultural activity. For yet another year, we attend to the needs of our olive trees, preparing them for their development and the new ageing of the fruit. This is how we obtain our Extra Virgin Olive Oil, ECOLOGICAL and of the highest quality.

Vegetation cover in one of our olive groves.

We have first attended to pruning. This year we have begun the conversion of one of our olive groves from a multi-storey to a single-storey grove, although it will take us some time to complete it.

We continue to take care of the vegetation cover of our olive groves, with the novelty of the entry of sheep into one of our farms. If only we could find more livestock farmers willing to enter all our farms, as it is a mutual aid that we provide for each other, as well as maintaining the life in the soil by avoiding herbicides and pesticides. It is what you could call perfect sustainability. We try to have living olive groves, full of biodiversity.

Cattle grazing in one of our olive groves.

Once again at this time of year, I have to express my concern about the low rainfall: it seems that this situation is going to be constant, unfortunately. At least in the province of Jaén, in general, we have had a very low rainfall. The water that has fallen has remained on the surface of the ground, and as it has not been continuous, it has not soaked into the ground. These waters have been very well perceived by the herbaceous cover, but not so much by the roots of the olive trees, which are somewhat deeper.

At the end of March, we are waiting for the rainfall that will help the olive grove to flower as well as the germination of new grasses that will serve as sustenance for the livestock; and of course... to generate life in the environment of the ECOLOGICAL olive grove for both the flora and the fauna.

Result after grazing with sheep. First pass.

The appearance of new shoots and the first signs of what will be the fruit are already visible. The olive grove has been doing very well so far, but we must not forget that from now on the worst is yet to come if the humidity of the soil does not improve. Flowering may be greatly reduced if the olive tree is not able to face it with strength.

We have had a winter more in line with the past, with low and continuous temperatures, which I believe has favoured the vegetative rest of the olive tree. Although we had some very hot days at the end of March (exceeding 30ºC), this was only temporary and we returned to temperature levels that can be considered normal at this time of year.

Now... it's time to wait and see what happens weather-wise, while we put all the means at our disposal to make the setting as fruitful as possible: we start with the contribution of natural MICRO-ORGANISMS.

We provide a link to last year's 2020 publication in March, in case any reader would like to make a comparison.

We remind you that MERGAOLIVA bases the quality of its Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to a large extent, on the care of the environment that surrounds the olive grove. Whatever we give to nature, it will give back to us in return. So let us try to do our best to achieve an outstanding response and obtain an excellent Extra Virgin Olive Oil, either organic or conventional.