This year’s premature flowering of the olive trees in all the olive-producing regions of Greece, as well as the other Mediterranean countries, seems to be developing rapidly, due to the higher temperatures of the Winter and the beginning of this year’s Spring, according to Nikos Michelakis, Dr. Agronomist, former Director of the Olive Institute of Chania and Scientific Advisor of the Association of Olive-Growing Municipalities of Crete (SEDIK).

Especially in Crete, the development ofFlowering is even more advanced than in other areas and in fact, according to Mr. Michelakis “…in several olive groves of the coastal and Mediterranean areas of the island, fruit set has already started to appear.

In any case, just like last year, the early flowering, since at the time of its appearance the soil moisture has not yet been depleted to a dangerous degree, it leads to a more successful fruiting. On the contrary, the later flowering, if the drought continues, develops in conditions of constantly decreasing soil moisture and therefore the chances for good fruiting are limited”.

Giving recommendations for dry and irrigated olive groves, the Scientific Advisor of the Association of Olive-Growing Municipalities of Crete states that: “On the part of the producers, the necessary actions must be taken immediately in order to exclude or limit the destructive effects of unusual weather conditions. Thus, in all olive groves and especially in dry ones, the limitation of soil moisture losses is essential care, which can be done in two ways: The destruction of weeds, if it has not been done, should be done immediately. And a better and more ecological way is to cut them immediately with a lawnmower and leave them dry on the ground. Service recommendations for not destroying the weeds because they benefit the pests of “Kalocori”, etc., must certainly be set aside in front of the priority of fruit setting.

The clearing of the trees from gluttonous and semi-dry shoots is another energy that benefits not only the fruit setting but also the general balance of the trees. In irrigated olive groves, the application of irrigation during this period is not only useful but valuable energy.

This has been amply proven by our multi-year experiments which showed that watering in the Spring has almost the same effect as watering throughout the season. After all, in the spring, the needs or wastes of tourism have not yet begun, which may well cooperate and not compete with olive cultivation“.