LA COLTIVAZIONE
The stages of cultivation are pruning, fertilization, plant protection, and plowing. Pruning usually occurs between the end of olive harvesting and flowering, typically from December to May. It involves the use of specific tools such as manual or pneumatic scissors, electric saws, and chainsaws, as well as the removal of branches from the ground. Pruning serves multiple purposes, including renewing productive branches, controlling tree growth, improving air and light penetration into the canopy, reducing parasitic attacks, eliminating dry or damaged branches (e.g., due to pests, various weather conditions), maintaining consistent productivity over time (reducing the phenomenon of production alternation), supporting vegetative growth, and preventing plant aging.
Soil fertilization occurs through the introduction of organic products into the soil, regulated by EU regulations on organic agriculture. Green manure, which begins after olive harvesting, is an old agricultural technique used to increase the biological fertility of the soil. It involves the sowing and subsequent burial of specific plant species (legumes) with the aim of maintaining or increasing soil fertility, rather than harvesting the product. The results that can be obtained include an increase in organic matter in the soil, a slowing of erosion phenomena, the transfer of nitrogen from the atmosphere to the soil through nitrogen fixation, and a consequent increase in the nitrogen content of the soil.
Phytosanitary defense is regulated by EU regulations on organic agriculture and is the set of actions aimed at destroying pests of all kinds that damage crops or contain their damage. Plowing involves removing the soil, placing the surface layer, the vine shoots, and weeds in depth, while the deep layers are brought to the surface and exposed to the action of atmospheric agents. A company that produces extra virgin olive oil according to organic farming methods can carry out the plowing phase after the fertilization process is effective in terms of time (late March) and during olive harvesting in summer and autumn.
