13 Jun 2022, 09:41
Juan José Mercado Gavilán
Seguimiento
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Tags: olive oil, olive grove, monitoring

Flowering and setting of the olive. June 2022.

We are entering the month of June, and the worst predictions are coming true. As we said in our previous publication, we suspected that the olive tree would find it difficult to cope with flowering and setting of the olives, given the scarcity of rainfall and low soil humidity.

To make matters worse, we have endured some days of intense heat in May, with temperatures out of the ordinary. This heat surprised the olive grove in full bloom, with the result that much of what would become fruit has been aborted: the blossom has been burnt and many of them have not even opened.

In the picture you can see that the flower has wilted without germinating.

Only in those olive groves where it was possible to give a small emergency irrigation before flowering has it been possible to bring some of the fruit forward. Generally speaking, the coming season will be one of very low production.

In this other image you can see that the sample or weft has burnt without developing, due to the high temperatures in May.

The grasses of the vegetation cover, which only a few days ago had been outstandingly green, have now started to wilt and take on their light straw-coloured hue. We are therefore proceeding with the second clearing of the canopy to give the ground the cover that is so necessary to get through the coming days of high temperatures. Due to climate change, which no one doubts is with us, the summer periods are becoming more and more aggressive in their manifestations of heat and absence of rain, even in the form of storms.

In agriculture, as in other primary sectors, we are increasingly confronted with very adverse situations, often caused by our bad practices. A change in our habits with respect to the planet is urgently needed if we do not want to at least make the situation worse. At Mergaoliva, we do our bit by treating the olive grove environment in a natural way, free of pesticides and residual chemicals. We are committed to organic or ecological treatment, to the contribution of micro-biotic fauna to the soil. In this way we try to maintain a balance in our olive groves. In this way, taking care of the main base which is the soil and what it contains, we can offer our customers the best final product from the fruit of the olive: EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), olive juice.

We will wait for the coming months to pass, hoping that the heat waves will be few and short in duration. We will see how the little fruit that remains evolves and we will take care of it as much as we can until the harvest arrives at the beginning of October.