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<pre>Not mad at all!! Our olive grove was abandoned in 85 after the big frost
and we have rejuvinated it. It is a continual process in Italy. A friend of
ours is doing the same with a grove in the hills above Assisi. My advice is
to compromise on tree shape. To restore perfect vase shapes is a long
process. It is better to have a rough shape - but not too rough - for the
sake of quicker restoration.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
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<pre>Drastic pruning is one option. We had a similar problem but not quite so
severe. We wanted to keep the trees cropping so we took them down to
half their height but in stages. Picking is difficult with tall trees
but not impossible. The idea is to not only reduce the height - topping
- but to thin. You must restore the skirt of the tree which has been
lost due to shading. You want to stop the tree growing tall - that is
easy - but also push out the growth lower down - that is more diffcult.

The other factor is how are you going to pick them? If you use semi
mechanical methods tall trees are not such a problem as you can pick
from the ground without climbing inside or using ladders. A staged
reduction would be a better commercial bet.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.


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