Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 24 July 2019

Pruning olive trees is a balance of art, lore and science

By CAIN BURDEAU At his side was Giuseppe Lo
Associated Press Presti, a 41-year-old agron-
TORRETTA, Sicily (AP) — omist and olive tree spe-
Watching Giovanni Ca- cialist. Lo Presti stooped to
ruso prune an olive tree is inspect a dead tree.
like observing a mountain “Look, this is what happens
climber decide how to when you don’t cut right,”
reach the next hand-grip in he said. Someone had cut
a cliff. He chooses his path into the trunk, allowing in-
with deliberation. He even fections in.
wears a helmet. Caruso moved on, his chain
With a set of newfangled saw whirring into action.
tools and theories, this “The trick is to start from the
35-year-old Sicilian biolo- top; the apex controls the
gist and self-made prun- plant,” he said. “By pruning
ing expert is working on his from the top, you can see
first commercial project to how much light comes in.”
introduce the central Ital- The new technique has
ian technique known as been met with skepticism
the “polyconic vase” into in the region, Caruso said.
Sicily’s often remote and Resting a foot on a wall
overgrown olive groves. overlooking the orchard,
This method seeks to sculpt This March 13, 2018 photo shows reporter and writer Cain Burdeau pruning an olive tree with he recounted how three
a tree into separate cone- shears and a small saw on a property his wife and he bought in Contrada Petraro in the mountains men stopped to criticize
shaped sides, thus produc- of northern Sicily near Castelbuono. him, an outsider with a nev-
ing more olives that are Associated Press er-before-seen helmet. He
easier to pick. “In this area, no one prunes polyconic vase method. a branch? wears it because he works
“The cone’s geometric anymore,” lamented Gre- He now does workshops Add to this the contradic- from the ground and could
shape allows the most gorio Ugdulena, a descen- in Sicily, where Ugdulena, tory advice from friends be hit by falling branches
branches to be exposed to dant of the family that de- and I, met him. and local farmers, all ea- — he has a scar to prove it.
the sun,” Caruso said. veloped the estate. It is early April, the end of ger to tell you what you’re “They shouted: ‘No, don’t
I thought about the over- His sister, Amalia, remem- a long pruning season for doing wrong: “Clear out cut that one! Cut that
grown olive trees I bought bered when field hands Caruso and also for my wife the center.” ‘’No, because branch! Where are you
a few years ago with my clambered up high ladders and me. We’d spent much of the heat, you should from?’ It was quite a spec-
wife and two boys on a to prune, and boys carried of the past few months leave some branches to tacle,” he said. “Everyone
property in Sicily. This was pots of tar to heal the trees’ learning to prune our long- shade the center.” ‘’Cut thinks they’re the best, that
the first year we pruned fresh cuts. abandoned, 40-odd olive off branches that hang to only they know (how to
them, nervously trying to “Many people have aban- trees. the ground.” ‘’No, don’t do prune).”
open them up to the sun as doned their olive orchards,” For beginners, pruning that.” ‘’Cut branches that He added: “Pruning is often
we’d learned from Caruso. Gregorio said with a sigh. any tree can be daunt- shoot up.” ‘’No, leave a seen as an art, but we see it
Caruso wielded a chain That’s why he brought in ing. Where to start? What few shooting up.” as a technique. People are
saw mounted on an ex- Caruso, an energetic for- damage will I do if I cut And on it goes. often looking for aesthetic
tendable pole and pow- mer bersagliere (an elite ri- this branch instead of that A look at the trees around perfection.” He paused.
ered by a battery pack. fleman) in the Italian army. one? Will I kill a tree? Can I us made us even more “There’s not a manual on
Pruning in Sicily is mostly In the past four years, Caru- climb into a tree to prune? confused. Many were how to do it, each tree
done with regular chain so has trained himself in the How exactly should I cut off pruned so heavily that only must be done individually.”
saws, but also with hand- a few limp twigs were left A good pruner must under-
saws and shears, as we had dangling off main branch- stand how a tree functions
done. es. The sound of chain saws so that every cut makes
He moved on to another was routine. sense, Caruso and Lo Presti
tree. Slowly, we gained con- agreed.
“Just looking at it, it seems fidence and speed. We When I came home, I saw
to be a globe,” he said. started with obviously de- trees that still needed work.
“We’re going to try to make pleted dry sections, suckers But I was glad we hadn’t
it a vase, which means we’ll and overlapping branch- bought a chain saw and
cut out the center.” es, and then moved on to sawed away. We are trying
And within a few minutes what wasn’t so obvious. It to balance many things,
he’d transformed it. took hours to prune the big- including maintaining the
The location was redolent ger specimens. aesthetic beauty of long
of history: 6,000 olive trees Caruso stood in a section gnarled branches, and
on a former noble estate of the orchard planted with avoiding power tools. We
in Torretta, a valley town Nocellara del belice trees. want to watch and learn
near Palermo. The sprawl- They looked nice to me. But how our trees respond to
ing villa, once a monastery, not to him. what we’ve done.
recalls a Sicily of opulent “The trees lack leaves and Already this spring, we’re
leisure and eccentric aris- there are many diseases,” pleased at how the now-
tocrats. Caruso said. “Look around: thinned-out olives are flow-
To an untrained eye, the This April 4, 2018 photo shows Giovanni Caruso pruning a large It’s surrounded by moun- ering.
olive tree on a former noble estate in Torretta near Palermo,
orchard could appear fine. Sicily. He is seeking to revive the estate’s 6,000 olive trees – many tains so there isn’t any cir- Did we play a hand in cre-
But a lot is going wrong, Ca- of which are diseased and suffering from poor management – culation, and there’s a lot ating all the lovely small
ruso said. Many trees suffer by pruning them with a central Italian technique known as the of humidity.” Humidity is yellow clusters? I like to
from neglect and disease. polyconic vase. bad for olives, he said. think so.q
Associated Press