Detailed Explanation of Olive Cultivation Techniques and Management Methods
Chinese olive (scientific name: Canarium album (Lour.) Raeusch.), a tree species in the genus Canarium of the family Burseraceae. It can reach a height of up to 35 m, with a diameter at breast height of up to 150 cm. There are 3-6 pairs of leaflets, papery to leathery, with 12-16 pairs of lateral veins; the infructescence is 1.5-15 cm long, bearing 1-6 fruits. The fruit is ovoid to spindle-shaped, yellow-green when ripe, with a thick exocarp and a hard stone, pointed at both ends, with a roughened stone surface. The flowering period is from April to May, and the fruit matures from October to December.
The Benefits of Chinese Olive
1. It clears heat and detoxifies, soothes the throat and resolves phlegm, promotes body fluid production and quenches thirst, stimulates the appetite and lowers qi, relieves restlessness, and helps sober one up and dislodge fish bones. It is mainly used to treat conditions such as sore and swollen throat, cough with blood-streaked sputum, bacillary dysentery, epilepsy, summer-heat thirst, enteritis and diarrhea, drunkenness, fish and crab poisoning, and fish bones stuck in the throat. For people who are not ill, it can also provide health-care benefits.
2. Chinese olives and olive oil also have the function of preventing and treating heart disease and gastric ulcers and protecting the gallbladder.
3. Eating Chinese olives during pregnancy and breastfeeding has a clear promoting effect on infant brain development and can make babies smarter.
4. Chinese olives have a fairly high calcium content. When eaten regularly, the sufficient calcium in the human body can combine with fatty acids and bile acids to form insoluble compounds that are excreted from the body, reducing carcinogenic effects on the intestinal tract.
Cultivation Techniques for the Chinese Olive Tree
1. Orchard site selection: The Chinese olive is characterized by a preference for warmth and strong drought resistance. Places with an average annual temperature of 18-20°C and annual rainfall of 1200-1600 mm are all suitable for Chinese olive growth. The best orchard sites are those with deep, loose soil and soil rich in organic matter or sandy loam. The aspect should not have strong western sun exposure or cold air, nor should it be a closed mountain hollow prone to frost. Based on the actual conditions of the site, choose gentle slopes or terraced fields with convenient transportation, abundant and pollution-free water sources, and relatively flat terrain for planting.
2. Planting method: Choose a season with ample rainfall for planting Chinese olives. When taking out seedlings, minimize root damage as much as possible, and promptly remove 2/3-3/4 of the leaves. For bare-rooted young saplings, if conditions permit, seal and wrap the trunk with degradable film to reduce water evaporation. The planting holes should be dug deep, and when planting, the seedlings should also be buried deep or the soil should be mounded high; after survival is confirmed, part of the mounded soil can be appropriately dug away. In orchards with sufficient water, add water into the hole and mix it into mud, or better still, put in rice paddy mud; place the roots in the mud and plant, then cover with soil. Do not apply inorganic fertilizers or incompletely decomposed organic fertilizers at planting time, to prevent root damage that could affect survival.
3. Care measures: Insert bamboo poles to prevent livestock damage and take shading measures. For the tree basin, measures such as plastic film mulching or spreading rice straw can be used to maintain humidity so the trees can make it through summer smoothly.
4. Training and pruning: The Chinese olive tree has strong growth vigor, which easily leads to excessive vegetative growth and affects reproductive growth. Generally, the approach is to weaken apical dominance, mainly using light pruning and thinning pruning or appropriate heading back, to encourage branches at all levels to form an even and compact canopy. Chinese olive flowering and fruiting have the characteristic of apical advantage, and the fruiting branches each year mostly develop from the previous year's summer and autumn shoots. When pruning after fruit harvest, pay attention to cultivating summer and autumn shoots on the outer part of the canopy to encourage fruiting branches that sprout from after the Beginning of Spring to before the Awakening of Insects, which have the best fruit-setting rate. In production, flower-promoting measures such as water control, root cutting, girdling, and chemical regulation are also combined; girdling treatment should be carried out with caution and is not recommended.
5. Fertilizer and water management: In Chinese olive cultivation, the timing and amount of fertilization are determined according to tree age, tree vigor, fruit load, soil fertility, and so on. Generally, pre-flowering fertilizer is applied in March, using medium-release fertilizers combined with farmyard manure. Fruit-swelling fertilizer is applied in August-September, with topdressing biased toward quick-acting fertilizers and plant growth regulators. After fruit harvest, farmyard organic fertilizer and supplements of major elements such as N, P, K, and Ga should be applied heavily, and efforts should be made to turn the soil, apply deeply, and cover. During rainy days and dry sunny periods, drainage and irrigation should be carried out promptly to ensure normal tree growth; especially during each shoot-flushing period and fruit expansion period, an appropriate water supply must be ensured.
6. Disease and pest control: Compared with other fruit trees such as citrus and green jujube, Chinese olive suffers relatively less from diseases. The main diseases include anthracnose, gummosis, and tree gall disease. The main pests include the star-room psyllid, the small yellow leaf-roller moth, the black spiny whitefly, scale insects of the Diaspididae, and longhorn beetles. A "prevention first, integrated control" approach should be adopted. [For diseases, at the stage of new shoot leaf expansion or in the early stage of onset, spray 70% thiophanate-methyl 1500-fold solution or 50% carbendazim 800-fold solution for control. For pests, spray 90% trichlorfon 1000-fold solution + 10% imidacloprid 2000-fold solution + 40% chlorpyrifos 1500-fold solution, or 5% fipronil 1500-fold solution + 5% acetamiprid 12500-fold solution. For longhorn beetles, combine manual capture and killing with inserting cotton dipped in pesticide solution into the insect tunnels for fumigation.
7. Harvesting and freshness preservation: Harvest at the appropriate time according to use and market demand. After harvest, Chinese olives very easily lose water and shrivel, so harvest according to sales volume, processing volume, or orders. At the same time, take care to protect the terminal buds of fruiting branches so they can sprout fruiting branches for the following year, and try to harvest lightly, pack lightly, and transport without damaging the fruit. Maintaining appropriate and stable temperature and humidity is a key link in keeping Chinese olives fresh. Then process according to different procedures based on use, in order to obtain the best economic benefits.