<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Volker thanks for those observations.

With wine grapes we are learning that canopy management is very important
for quality fruit i.e. the more open your canopy the more sun can get into
the fruit and therefore the fruit ripens more evenly. Could we use those
same principles for olives.

You may have noticed that olive fruit hidden inside the tree are less ripe
than those on the outside, which are moreexposed to the sun. Could we train
olive trees like a hedgerow ? It this principle is correct then can we plant
our olives trees closer together.

Planting olive trees on an 8 x 5 metre grid does not allow many trees in a
hectare - roughly 250 trees.

Regards

Phil
</pre>
</td></tr></table>