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<pre>I agree with your comments Knut. Due to a glitch on my
part my earlier posting re 'unknown old grove' was
incomplete and in view of your comments I would like
to provide that information now...

Our Waterfall Gully olive grove comprises part of the
original Samuel Davenport Beaumont Estate of 12,000
trees which Davenport began planting in 1852. Samuel
Finn, his hardworking head gardener, lived on the dray
road connecting the Beaumont and Waterfall Gully
sections of the estate.

The 'unknown' factor in our grove is that we cannot
identify the colonial varieties with any certainty.
These old groves were planted in less than a metre of
clay and shale over limestone on well drained
hillsides at the foot of Mount Lofty in the Adelaide
Hills. First Creek flows through Waterfall Gully. We
have very high rainfall in winter and it's bone dry in
summer. We have no irrigation in place at all.
Davenport & Finn had terraced the hillside and perhaps
some of the trees near the creek could have been
irrigated but at least 95% must have been dry grown.

In addition to Davenport's neatly terraced colonial
groves there has been a proliferation of feral trees.
Obviously the olive thrives in this environment and
after 150 years these trees would appear to be drought
proof! Davenport claimed the olive should be denied
the best soils and deep loams because the best oil
came from trees grown on rocky, gravelly and drier
soils.

Davenport was a leading proponent for the development
of an olive oil industry and he argued that olives
gave value to land that could not otherwise be
utilized for planting. We know that some of the
varieties planted included Blanquette, Verdale and
Bouquettier from France and perhaps Sevillano,
Temprano and Lohayme imported from the Duke of
Wellington's Gibraltar Estate.

Of course we are most fortunate that Davenport & Finn
planted our trees and that we do not have to concern
ourselves with matters of irrigation at this stage. I
wouldn't presume to offer advice on such matters. I
can only report on our experience in this environment
under our particular climatic conditions. Like Knut I
offer this as 'something to think about' and hope this
may be of some interest and application to other
growers. My main concern at this stage is to
revitalise our trees through pruning and cleaning up
with our goats and donkeys...but that's another story!


Tony Whiting
First Creek
Waterfall Gully, SA.

--- Lakelands Olives <lakelands.olives@...>
wrote: > Dear friends.
>
> The discussion is very interesting, however we all
> do not know what really makes a good or even
> outstanding oil. Too many factors have to be
> considered to single out irrigation as 'the' major
> factor. Based on Brian Chatterton's Tuscan 'tales'
> resp. example, we carefully (deficiency) irrigated
> our organic grove. As you can see from the following
> AOA table, our 'irrigated' 6 year old Frantoio trees
> produced the second Gold Medal in this year's 6th
> National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show 2002 class 1,
> just beaten by Antony & Brigita Whiting's wonderful
> Trophy oil. The 4 silver awards Jayne Bentivoglio
> (as well certified organic oils and irrigated trees)
> and I shared could as well point to our specific
> cool climate-high altitude conditions (our groves
> are south of Mudgee NSW at 700 m above sea level).
> However, lack of full irrigation has shown reduced
> growth of new fruiting wood for next year's harvest.
> I have a wonderful comparison with my neighbour's
> grove (Jamindama Olives), who irrigated extensively,
> produced outstanding oils and plenty of new fruiting
> wood.
> Always something to think about and to learn, isn't
> it?
>
> Knut Kammann
> Lakelands Olives
> CLASS 1: 50-499 L
> G+Small Volume Trophy Antony & Brigita Whiting
> unknown old grove 200 First Creek Waterfall Gully SA
>
> G Knut Kammann frantoio 465 Lakeland Olives
> Cremorne NSW
> S Jayne Bentivoglio corregiola manzanillo
> early 175 Rylestone Olive Press Rylestone NSW
> S Jayne Bentivoglio barnea early harvest 465
> Rylestone Olive Press Rylestone NSW
> S Vici Murdoch & Gerard Gaskin koroneiki 63
> Riverina Olive Grove Wagga Wagga NSW
> S Knut Kammann bouquettier 85 Lakeland Olives
> Cremorne NSW
> S Knut Kammann corregiola 470 Lakeland Olives
> Cremorne NSW
> S Michael & Beverley Pimm frantoio wa mission
> leccino trad press 100 Agonis Ridge Margaret River
> WA
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Antony Whiting
> To: OliveOil@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 6:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [OliveOil] re:Water & Moisture meters
>
>
> --- Roger Farquhar <rogfarlandsc@...>
> wrote: > Jon
>
> >Our First Creek "Davenport and Finn" EVOO from
> Waterfall Gully, SA was the trophy winning oil in
> the
> AOA awards produced from the 'unknown old grove'.
> In
> fact the grove comprises the largest remaining
> section
> (4.5 Hectares at Waterfall Gully plus remaining
> Beaumont sections) of Samuel Davenport's circa
> 1860's
> and grove which spanned Beaumont and Waterfall
> Gully.
>
>
>
> You're right, its not an easy subject, so for what
> > its worth..
> >
> > For a variety of reasons I've elected to not
> > irrigate my (young) trees
> > however as it has not rained for most of this
> year I
> > have hand watered a
> > couple of times, 20 litres each tree each time.
> > It's a laborious
> > process but its only for the short term. If you
> are
> > going to irrigate
> > then infrequent deep watering cycles are the
> > preferred option to
> > encourage root growth.
> >
> > If you look at the AOA awards, best oil,
> 'unknown
> > old grove' (sans
> > irrigation I'll bet)
> >
> > Next year the topic will be drainage..
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been
> > removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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</pre>
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