Advantages of High Density Olive Orchards

• Faster Production – Initial harvest is the second year after planting. Third and fourth year crops are heavy already, with full cropping in the fifth year.

• Mechanical Harvesting – Growers are always looking for ways to have more efficient, less costly harvesting. With high-density olive orchards, fast, efficient harvesting can become a reality by using over-the-row grape harvesters. This will almost eliminate expensive hand labor.

• Bigger Yields, Quicker Payback – More trees per acre means more production per acre. Yields can reach 5-7 ton per acre in mature orchards. Olive oil yields of 40 gallons per ton of olives can be expected.

• Well suited to existing planting layouts – With olive plants typically spaced 12-13 feet between rows and 4-6 feet between plants, they fit well into existing grape vineyard spacing.

Premiere Olive Oil varieties: The specially selected Arbequina clone I-18, Arbosana I-43, and Koroneiki I-38 not only have the compact growth habit for high density planting, but also the chemical and organoleptic characteristics of their oils are excellent and make them suitable for producing early, premium price oil.