Kapiti Olives field walk - 21 April 2012

Allan - chairman of the Kapiti branch.

David and Helen kindly agreed to host yet another event at their grove. And what a lovely day for it too! Sunny with practically no wind, made the walk amongst the trees even more enjoyable.

I still remember my first visit to David's grove about a year ago, when I reported about how healthy and well David's trees look. Well, since then, David discovered (with the help of the Spanish visitors later last year) that his trees had some diseases, which for one, explained the leaf drop. David immediately started treatment and this year his trees are really in good shape.

After Allan gave some feedback on ONZ and the constitution, David shared some valuable information on grove management and also gave a rundown of what he did to fix the diseases on the trees. He spayed mainly with a mix of Dodine (a fungicide) and OliveMix (a spray fertiliser). Three applications (the maximum recommended frequency per year for Dodine) seem to have solved the biggest problems.

As usual, a good outing, very informative and we are slowly starting to recognise and know more people in the olive industry.

Some pics from the event:

Some members of the Kapiti branch at the Kapiti grove.

David showing what happens to a tree that was blown over.
He chopped off the top, pulled it upright, staked it, and it is already making new branches.

Another blown-over tree - two years later.

Kapiti Grove. David and Andreas in the front.

The inside of a recently pruned tree. Branches and suckers that grows towards the
inside of the tree are all taken out to allow light and air into the tree,
 and the "wounds" are treated with a fungicide paint.