A handbook on pruning and management of centuries-old olive trees as a tool of safeguard.

Safeguard, conservation and evaluation of olive trees
should be programmed with a preliminary discrimination
of plants having characteristics of monumental trees and
normal trees. In the second case the policy is most oriented
to preserve the yield potential of trees, while in the case of
monumental olive trees many evaluations (plant age, size,
esthetic value, landscape situation, historical relevance,
and cultural identity heritage) contribute to regulate the
objective of the tree conservation.
In Sardinia Island there are many possibilities to observe
single trees or wild populations or orchards of oleaster or
olive very old and having the characteristics of monumental
plants. This is the typical situation that is easily found in
the landscape of the Genuri Municipality.
Agriculture Department of the University of Sassari, Sardinia
regional Agencies AGRIS and LAORE, and the Municipality
of Genuri (Italy) jointly worked to produce a “Handbook
on pruning and management of centuries-old olive
trees” as tool of a wide program of safeguard of a total of
about 900 trees growing in the land. Pruning techniques
are presented with a clear and essential language and with
many images, inviting growers to be responsible of the
survival of their old-trees. In particular, many information
was provided on the possibility to maintain a correct equilibrium
between plant monumental characteristics and
yield possibilities, the adequate use of equipments, the
labor security essentials, and the plant pathologies generated
by wrong pruning.