Meet Kaya

Guardian of the Grove

Destroyer of Irrigation

She's a helper.

Olive Frost Damage Photographs

Hard hit Maurino. Notice foliage loss on this small tree.

Typical damage.

Notice discoloration of leaf tips. These are now dry and easily crumbled one week after injury.

This large bushy Maurino only suffered damage at the tips.
 

Splitting from freeze on some of the smaller branches

Olive Tree Frost Damage

Looking at the local weather station stats, we had a 7 day run of sub 30F nights with the lowest coming in at 21.3F

Of the three main types of olives we have planted -Maurino, Frantoio, and Leccino- the Maurino seems to have been hit the hardest.  It is the slowest growing tree in our grove and has the smallest leaves of the three.  The smaller the tree, maybe a 3 foot diameter, the more damage.  The larger, more full trees have damage  contained to the outer branches.

Frankly I was surprised that it was the Maurino most affected.  The cold tolerance of this tree is notable and I believe this tree is a selection for less warm and sunny climates such as Oregon.

This link to a report from Bill Krueger, the Glenn County Farm Advisor, details freeze damage from two notable cold weather events in 1990 and 2010.  Particularly worrying are defoliation photos from the 2010 event which had a low of 23F, two degrees warmer than this 2013 event.

The take home message from this report is;

• Plant hardy cultivars for your climate
• Reduce Nitrogen after July
• Avoid major pruning in the Fall
• Don't over water after harvest
• Water well in Spring to promote recovery
• Request no temperatures under 32F in your prayers

Frost Tolerance of Eight Cultivars by Barranco, Ruiz, and Gomez-del Campo
University of California, Lessons From a Record Breaking Freeze

California Cold Snap

    It just doesn't seem right that those words in the title should belong in the same sentence.  Well, after a week plus of night time temps dipping to the low teens twenties at the grove - that's Fahrenheit you those of you afflicted with the less precise scale of Celsius- , we've finally broken into more proper December weather with temps in the mid 60's.  Shout out to Chris in Maine...

    The trees seem to have taken a little bit of a beating but hopefully no losses with the smaller trees.    I'll post later some photos of frost damaged leaves.  The affected leaves have a brown coloration and the margins roll ventrally towards the midrib, or center vein.  No damage to the trunks seen yet.  The propogated trees from Summer I kept indoors at night so all are still thriving.

    Also, some larger olive trees at the 2500 foot elevation seem to have weathered the cold healthily as well.

Olive Curing

My daughter is trying her hand at curing some olives.  Here is a great resource we found from UC Davis, Olives, Safe Methods for Pickling

We are using the water curing methods, no lye.  Frankly lye scares me.  It's more popular uses are for the production of methamphetamine,  food curing, and  soap.  My grandmother-in-law was just telling me the other day about her adventures making laundry soap as a child.  After butchering large animals on the farm She would mix the tallow and lye in a large cauldron over an open fire reducing it to soap.  She advised the soap was not for contact with human skin.  I'm sticking with the water cure method.

Kawasaki Mule Charging Problem solved!

Finally
I think...

It only took 8 hours of  disassembly, google search, head scratching, crying, bargaining with God, and luck.  Mostly luck.  It was a somewhat anticlimactic solution; a loose connection.  Ask me which one and I'll tell you I have no idea.  All the parts in the charging system tested good individually, so after cleaning the connectors and re-assembling the parts the system performed within normal limits.  We'll see if it lasts.

Usefull resources:

Charging Troubleshooting Flowchart  Print this out, it was a lifesaver

My Mower Parts  Online Kawasaki manual for the fj400d engine

ElectroSport Industries    "How a Motorcycle Charging System Works"

Olive Roots!

I had another small disaster with the propagation table a few days ago, some small creature had plowed through several rows.  Luckily whatever it was, it confined its digging to the mostly dead outer perimeter.  It did expose this cutting however, and I was thrilled to see these fine roots.

How cool is that?

I'll pot in a week or two and start the Autumn propagation with a few improvements to the table.

Check those irrigation lines!

I like to walks the fields while the irrigation is on.  It's good to check for leaks and proper functioning.  It's one of the reasons I've been so hesitant to add a timer system, I know I'll get complacent and let it go for too long.  For example, last week I had a whole block not come on.  Had I not walked the field I would not have known this.  Luckily I fixed it the Fonzie way, I banged the solenoid and flushed the system of some two year old pipe glue, and all was well.

Propagation Table Progress

Well, I'm halfway through the 2 month cycle to produce viable trees and let's just say it's been a fantastic learning experience.  About 2 weeks ago we had an afternoon power outage on a 110 degree day - that's about 43.3C for those of you stuck with a less precise temperature scale - that wreaked havoc on the perimeter plantings.  I'd estimate over half the cuttings were lost.

Other than the loss of mist for an afternoon there were several other negative factors that played in, operator error as they say in the military.  First, the bed is not in a greenhouse and only protected by shade cloth.  This exposes the cuttings to the drying effects of the wind.  Second, I did not initially compensate the misting schedule to account for the open air bed.  Misting times have been increased slightly and the pause between misting is now halved to around 7 minutes.  Thirdly, the cuttings were coming from water and nutrition stressed trees.  It's very sad to look at the now decimated bed.

The good news is all the above problems are being addressed so that the next round of cuttings late August will hopefully fare better.  Also after pulling several cuttings from the center of the bed, roots are forming!  There is hope yet.

Trash Patrol

I hate leaving clutter behind in the grove.  Especially all that green orchard tape.  It goes in my pocket and can add up fast in a new grove while training trees.  Here's a sample collected from just one row.

Olive Tissue Analysis

Dropped  5 samples of leaves off at a local agricultural lab for nutritional analysis.  The results of this lab will help us focus our ongoing fertilization program to give the trees just what they need and no more.  This is an important part of sustainable farming.  We want just enough nutrients, especially Nitrogen, for the tree, but not so much that we have excess running into our local watershed harming the environment.

For the samples I simply took brown paper lunch bags and pulled 40-100 leaves from a single cultivar and labeled the bag accordingly, so at the end I had one labeled bag per cultivar I wanted sampled.  The leaves wanted, I learned from the nice folks at Sunland Analytical, are a selection on the top 1/3 -2/3 of the tree from East to West, basically as the Sun traverses the tree.  This provides a good sampling of the tree from those leaves that are fully sun exposed to those leaves that are more shaded.  I took a random sampling of healthy trees throughout our fields.      

As you may know, an olive tree will have alternating heavy crop and light crop years.  What growth you have this Summer will help decide what yield you will realize come harvest 18 months away.  This years harvest has already been decided by the tree.  So our fertilization program this Summer is actually for next years harvest.  Come next Spring we want a good number of buds to decide that they have enough stores of nutrition to dedicate themselves to fruit production.  If we haven't provided that nutrition this year, a low production year will result because the tree feels starved and will dedicate itself to storing nutrition in the form of new growth.

Custom Wood John Deere Grill

    So after mulching the original grill I had to come up with a replacement.  After a few calls and trips to the parts store I came to the sad conclusion that a $550 dollar replacement was not an option.  So after a few hours, some scrap wood, paint, and wire screen, behold:

 The Frame

Bling baby!

    John Deere utility with Mercedes luxury.

Irrigation Timer

Finally added an irrigation timer to blocks 1 and 2.  Too bad I can't run it until I replace a leaking controller.

July 16 Olive Lignification

Favalosa at 9mmx16mm
Maurino at 9mmx14mm
Today was the first resistance encountered while splitting an olive.

 Maurino on the right.

 Favolosa lignification

Maurino lignification

I just like writing lignification.

Olive progression 2013

Below are two olives, to the left a Maurino and to its right a Favolosa.  Notice the Favolosa's darker green color compared to the Maurino.

 Below is a cross section of the Favolosa, around 11mm.

 Below is a Maurino, around 10mm.

Notice the endocarp is defined, as it has been for several weeks, and is not yet hardening, or lignifying.  In the center where the kernal or seed will be is occupied by a jelly like fluid.

Olive Irrigation Formula for drip lines

Okay, here's what I'm doing.  The state of California has weather stations which calculate the daily evapotranspiration (ET) of a known water intensive crop, in the case of our local station in Diamond Springs, a cover of grass is monitored (ETo).  Each day a number for ETo is given which represents the water losses for that grass.  Yesterdays was .31 inch.  That is the amount of water required by that  crop for the conditions present such as temperature, wind, cloud cover, etc, which need to be replaced.  To convert the number to the amount an olive tree uses I need a conversion factor.  This is published and remains constant during certain yearly growth stages.  The number is .75 and is represented by (Kc).  Meaning an olive tree requires 75% of the water that the grass (ETo) does.  This new number is the ETc for olives.

I also need to take into account the size of the tree.  Basically I find the diameter of the tree canopy, square it and multiply it by conversion factor of .7854 to get the area (A).  For example our trees are averaging about a 4' diameter, so 4(4).7854 = 12.6 sq. feet

Also since the formula I use needs to reconcile the Area and ETc  (ETc = ETo X Kc) which is given in inches to gallons, I use a conversion factor of .623

The formula is as follows:

Gallons/tree/day =  ETo(Kc)A(.623) / .9

The .9 is the efficiency of the water delivered via drip lines.  It is the most efficient value for any water delivery system.

So to water I do the following: 

                                       .31(.75)12.6(.623) / .9  =  2gallons/tree/day

 So every tree, were it fully grown at this size, requires 2 gallons.  Since these trees are still small they will require ~30% more water to make up for loss of shade and wind protection afforded by larger trees, and to make up for my poor weed control.  That bumps me up to around 3 gallons a day.  

I water every other day in the Summer which comes out to around 6 gallons.  Since I have two 1 gallon/hr emitters a tree, I simply divide the total gallons needed by 2 to get my run times required to keep healthy growing trees.  

We'll talk about a controlled defict for for fine olive oil production later.  Right now these trees are new and I want them growing.

Keep in mind this is a basic formula and their are many other ways to take into account a plethora of variables to further fine tune your irrigation needs.

Resources

Californis Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS)

Mike Terrell, WSU, Master Gardeners

Drip Irrigation Formula

Olive Irrigation and problems

It's hot!

Even the tractor just wants to sit in the shade.

What's a... drupe?

Or how an olive is like a peach

A drupe is a fruit in which the outer layer is a thin skin, the middle layer is thick and usually fleshy (though sometimes tough, as in the almond or fibrous, as in the coconut), and the inner layer (the pit) is hard and stony. Within the pit is usually one seed. Other representative drupes are the cherry, peach, mango, olive, and walnut. (Merriam-Webster concise encyclopedia)

In fact the botanical term is derived from the Greek word dryppa meaning olive, which I guess means a peach is like an olive.

Other terms relating to the parts of an olive you may see are as follows:

    exocarp        = skin
    mesocarp      = flesh
    endocarp      = pit
    indehiscent    = meaning the fruit does not open up to release it's seed
    lignification     = the process of the endocarp hardening as it matures

Placing Cuttings

So here's how I'm placing the cuttings in the propagation media. I have a 2 inch gauge marked at 2 inch intervals that I place against the previous column of cuttings.  With a piece of flashing I cut down through the media and simply pull it away to expose a trench the length of my gauge.  I place the cuttings on my layout and simply backfill the trench with the flashing.

Bush Hog

No grass too tall or grill too stout...

Propagation Mist Timer

I call it The Frankentimer.

I put this mist timer together because it's inexpensive to build and I can easily replace individual components for around $20.  I can control the duration and the pause each from 1 second to 60 hours, and I can control the hours I want to mist during the day.  Here are the parts I used.

Basically I have an individual surge protector that I plugged a simple 24hr timer into that will allow me to set the misting system on while the sun is up.  Into the 24hr timer I have a 12Vdc power supply  for the timing board and a 24VAC transformer to run the solenoid controlled water valve.  One line, doesn't matter which, of the 24VAC runs through the relay on the timing board on its way to the valve.

The timing board is a VM188 and is controlled with a couple of jumpers to select seconds/minutes/hours and a dial to control 1-60 for the selected time setting.  It's not pretty but it works.

And now some Amazon affiliate links. If you do copy this design, please click through the links below to purchase your parts.
A short list of supplies used:

VELLEMAN MK188 1S - 60H PULSE-PAUSE TIMER KIT
Elk TRG2440 24VAC, 40 VA AC Transformer with PTC Fuse
Intermatic TN311C 120 Volt Heavy Duty Grounded Timer
Belkin SurgeCube Surge Protector with 1 Outlet
Coleman Cable 09638 18/4 Solid Underground Sprinkler System Wire, 18-Gauge 4-Conductor 50-Feet

Propagation Mist System

Got the mist system up and running.

So given the temporary nature of the table, I'm just using a standard garden hose to connect with instead of plumbing a more permanent system.  I've got a standard 3/4" female hose fitting to male 3/4" fitting that is also a backflow preventer.  This is important because you don't want to suck back any nasties into your drinking water.  This threads into 3/4" electrically controlled solenoid valve to turn the water on and off.  From the valve the 3/4" pipe runs down the center of the table, underneath, sprouting two 24" risers that are simply capped, drilled, and threaded to accept the mist nozzles.

I went with two risers instead of an overhead pipe to control the dripping that occurs when the mist collects on the pipe an drips onto the rooting medium. Additionally I slipped a 6" section of 2" pipe around the riser where it protrudes through the rooting medium to control dripping.

Propagation Table

Well, I banged together a 'rustic' outdoors propagation table.  It's a simple open frame built out of 2x6's about 6'x3' and suspended at a comfortable 3 foot working level.  I'll cover it with shade cloth after the misting system is installed.  The bottom is a fine hardware cloth held up by a series of slats.  Next I'll cobble together the mist system and build the timer.

And with the shade cloth tacked on.

Spring continues

It's been hot here in Placerville with temps in the upper 80's.  Watering and weekly fertilizing continuing with good results.  All trees are pushing new shoots from 1 to 6 inches and up to 30-40 percent of trees are budding flowers, up from a few trees a week ago.

Immediate goals are eradicating weed competition.

Some pics

Nice sunny weather here in California with temps in the 80's. Loving it, but the grass sure loves to grow. Getting ready to to do a 4th full grove mowing.

Fertigation in full swing, getting that Nitrogen pushing the new growth.

Broken Valve

Oh No!

Baby it's cold outside.

That's a lot of ice.

A 20 foot geyser from the red valve.

A Christmas miracle!

Good times.

All fixed.

It's even insulated underneath.