Owning an olive tree can prove a wonderful addition to any garden. Not only do they look beautiful, but you also have the opportunity to now make your own olive oil. But of course, to keep the tree in the wonderful condition you must take care of it properly. Whilst many home owners will choose to call a professional arborist to do the pruning, you may choose to prune the tree yourself as well. If you've never actually carried out this kind of work before then the following steps should help to make the process of pruning your olive tree a lot easier.
Step 1 - Have The Right Equipment To Hand
But before you can begin pruning your olive tree you need to make sure that you have the right tools to hand. The main tools you will need when it comes to carrying out this task are a good handsaw, a set of pruning shears, and some bypass pruners. Once you have all these tools together you can now carry out the following steps.
Step 2 - Prune To Shape Not To Cut
It is important when pruning an olive tree you have a goal in mind. Most people tend to prune trees to remove long branches or to remove ones that are weak or are dying. As you remove any branches you need to think about the shape of your tree. Ideally, the shape of your olive tree should be triangular. As you cut you are aiming for upward angles. Plus remove enough branches so that light can permeate through to the inside of the tree.
Step 3 - Maintain Lateral Branches
These branches will have sprouted directly from the trunk of your olive tree. It is these that help provide your tree with its canopy. You need to be careful about which ones you remove otherwise you could end up with large gaps in the foliage of the trees. The branches that you need to remove are weak or vertical ones.
Step 4 - Need To Cut Away Vertical Branches
These are the branches that grow further away from the trunk of your olive tree. They are much slimmer than lateral ones and often point upwards. You need to remove the ones that are the weakest and skinniest and can be found at the top of your tree. Don't remove too many of these branches, just enough to stop the tree from becoming too dense.
Step 5 - Remove Suckers
Suckers are small stems that have only been growing for a short while. You will notice these as they grow at weird angles. Not only do these detract from the way your tree will look, but also can prove harmful to it. If left they will suck up essential nutrients and water that the rest of your tree needs. These can easily be removed using your pruning shears or bypass pruners.
