California Olive Oil News^©
A Publication of The Olive Oil Source  

Volume 5 Issue 7

July  2002

High Density Olive Orchards

For decades large California olive orchards have supplied fruit to the ripe olive industry using sophisticated economies of scale common to other cash crops. More recently small orchards of oil olives have sprung up that use traditional varieties and 100 year old planting and harvesting technologies. These anachronisms are felt to produce the best oil for the small niche markets the producers sell to.

There is a new breed of California olive farmer that thinks that the history and romance of the olive has clouded the normal big thinking of California farmers. They are advocating high yield, early producing dwarf varieties planted in high-density orchards that can be mechanically harvested.  Why not turn olives into a high tech crop like cotton, almonds and citrus?
 

2 year old trees at California Olive Ranch

Although a new idea for California, this has been the state of the art for years in serious olive producing regions of Spain, Italy, Argentina, Australia, etc. A large Spanish olive oil concern, Agromillora, has started a pilot orchard in Oroville; California Olive Ranch, and is encouraging the sale of dwarf hybrids through local nurseries.

The mantra of these nurseries is that with their varieties and planting schemes, farmers can expect early maturing trees, efficient harvests, and greater yields per acre of an excellent character oil. Can it really be done?  Lets examine each of these claims.

Time to first fruiting is an important consideration as there is a substantial capital investment in an orchard and the return on this investment is wanted sooner, not later. Olive trees now being offered by California nurseries are rooted stem cuttings from a part of the tree that will yield sooner (see propagating page). The high yield camp advertises that their trees will begin producing the second year with full cropping by the 5th year. (Full cropping is a bit of semantics. Part of the reason they are at “full crop” at 5 years is because they won’t get any bigger or you aren’t letting them get any bigger.)

 

Efficient harvesting is a laudable goal. The largest variable cost associated with olive orchards is labor. When they say efficient, hear mechanized. While most California olive farmers are waiting for U.C. Davis and others to come up with a mechanical harvester, high yield farmers are simply importing or using existing equipment. Many of these machines are over the row grape harvesters. Large trees require large, expensive, bulky harvesters driving over perfectly flat land. By using dwarf varieties, pruning to 7 feet and cultivating in rows, the trees can be harvested with a reasonably small and nimble straddle type harvester. Sierra Gold nursery claims that two men with a grape harvester and a bank-out can harvest 1- 1.5 acres per hour.
 

California Olive Ranch in CA - trellis system

Grape harvesters are available in California. Farmers who already own this equipment may be interested in another crop that ripens later than the grapes but which use the same harvesting equipment. Intensive cultivation olives may share staking, trellising, irrigation and fertilization set ups with grapes.

Greater yields per acre are achieved several ways. There are more trees per acre and trees are of high yield types such as Arbequina, Arbequina IRTA I-18 and Arbosana I-43. Agromillora’s model California Olive Ranch has a typical planting scheme; a 13 by 5 foot grid with 670 trees to the acre. Yields are increased with automated drip irrigation with fertilizer injection containing nutrients specific for soil conditions at the site. NursTech, Inc executive director Xavier Marques reports that yields can reach 5-7 tons per acre in average on mature blocks.

Excellent quality oil is determined by variety, fruit maturity, time to processing and subsequent handling. Of these, the only factor different in intensive cultivation setups is the variety. According to Professor Fontanazza of CNR Institute in Perugia these plants are designed to grow slowly, mature early and bear abundantly with an olive which has good yield of an acceptable high antioxidant, low peroxide oil which can then be blended with more flavorful oils. Basically you are making a good blend stock that can be sold as-is to satisfy the typical U.S. palate or blended with more flavorful oils for the gourmet.

Soil and ground preparation in still important. University of California Cooperative Extension expert Paul Vossen  says “Olives will grow where nothing else will grow” is one of the biggest myths of olive oil growing. Intensive cultivation proponents insist that their clones do well even in marginal soil types. Soils must be analyzed and deficiencies addressed in the fertilizer injection systems.

Water use can be efficient if drip systems are used. Drip line emitters can be on the trellis or underground. California Olive Ranch uses one 1200 GPM output well on their entire 733 acres.

Pruning can be very labor intensive.  The new varieties are slow growing.  A central leader is trained to keep the bearing areas between 2 and 7 feet above the orchard floor.  Mechanized hedge trimmers are used in some orchards

Straddle Type Harvester

John Slaughter at Burchell Nursery, Inc. thinks that intensive cultivation olives could be an option for farmers discouraged by poor cotton, raisin, grape and almond prices as these crops share some of the same farming challenges. He feels that the only thing keeping it from happening in his area of the central valley is lining up mills to process the olives on a contract basis. Many large orchards could swamp the existing olive mills and farmers may be reluctant to plant without a home for their product.

For a devil’s advocate view, consider some points made by Brian Chatterton of Italy. The cost of the tree for a high-density grove may be higher than the cost of the land if land costs are low. In Italy, as in Napa valley, land prices might be 20 times higher than Australia or parts of the California Sierra foothills. High density planting certainly makes economic sense in high land value situations, as it is a good return on land even though it might not be a good return on trees.

Thought must go into your particular situation to see if intensive planting makes sense. Using assumptions of 6 tons/acre yield, $14 per gallon drum price with 40 gallons yield of oil per ton, Sierra Gold predicts that there will be a positive cash flow by year three and a positive accumulated net revenue by year six. Nick Sciabica of Sciabica and Sons olive mill in Modesto thinks that while $14 per gallon may be a good price for California oil, it is still expensive compared to good imported extra virgin oil. The market for more expensive California oil needs to be improved.

Darrell Corti, president of Corti Brothers thinks that the market for olive oil in the U.S. is still huge.  Interviewed in Olint, Agromillora's quarterly magazine, he states that the average U.S. consumer will probably like the blander oils made by the dwarf clones but warns that like Europe, there are many niche markets. If an affordable and good quality California oil can be made, it could take sales from the imports and induce some Americans to switch from other oils.

Resources for those interested in high density orchards:

Sierra Gold Nurseries – 1 800-243-GOLD
The Burchell Nursery Inc. 559-285-3113
John R. Post Agricultural Advisor, Inc 530-682-9748
 

Olive Oil Health News

Several recent studies help confirm previous olive oil health claims. A small study at the University of Barcelona in Spain showed that 2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil a day for one week lowered oxidation of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and raised levels of antioxidants in study participants. Antioxidants are one of the components in the Mediterranean diet believed to lead to less heart disease. Besides olive oil, antioxidants are found in fruit, vegetables, tea and wine.

In an unrelated study by investigators at the US National Cancer Institute cancer-prone mice were fed either a restricted-calorie diet or a diet rich in olive oil, fruits and vegetables. Mice on the olive oil diet developed 40% fewer polyps and mice eating the calorie restricted diet were up to 60% less likely to develop pre-cancerous colon polyps compared with mice fed regular diets. People aren’t mice but it wouldn’t hurt to restrict calories, eat more vegetables and fruits and substitute olive oil for other fats while we wait for the human studies.

Pakistan Hopes to be Olive Oil Producer

According to Asia Pulse, the Pakistan Oilseeds Development Board (PODB) is interested in raising incomes of farmers and reducing edible oil imports by producing olive oil. The project has targeted areas of Punjab and Baluchistan. Wild trees that already grow in government-owned forests would be grafted with European-type olive varieties. There are thought to be over 40 million wild olive trees, 8 million of which would be grafted to oil type varieties. The olive oil would be exported at high prices to buy cheaper but unhealthy palm oil for Pakistanis.

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