Michael,

If your main concern is the leaf drop during the shaking of the trees I believe you can relax.

I’ve once confronted a teacher of mine with this very same question, and it was explained to me that, even if olive is an evergreen tree most of the leaves (which have a two years lifespan) drop during the cold period (i.e. just after harvest). So the leaves that drop during harvest are leaves that would have dropped anyway. This means there isn’t any significant consequence of the leaf drop produced by the harvesting.

Cheers,

__________________
João Correia
Cascais - Portugal
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msn: jorgegranja@yahoo.co.uk

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