Being a farmer or a homesteader is not only about the beauty of nature around you, it is also about problems and painful decisions. Plants, just like animals or humans, are getting sick and it is up to the farmer to help them out even by hurting them! But I better start from the beginning.
Following 3 years of drought, we had a winter with a lot of rain and everybody in the region is very happy about it, including myself. So when I went to a part of my farm with some of our best olive trees I was expecting to see them in great shape (after so many rain) and ready to blossom and produce. Unfortunately reality was nothing but what I was expecting. A few trees had no leaves at all and looked practically dead, some others had yellow leaves just about to drop them and many more were pale and in bad condition. Just in case you don't know it, olive trees are evergreen and they only turn yellow and drop their leaves when they have a severe problem. And that's exactly what is happening to those trees.
The cause of all this is called Verticillium dahliae and it is a fungal plant pathogen. After the original shock, I consulted a friend agriculturist and he was very clear with the treatment I had to do if I didn't want to risk the whole olive grove. Heavy pruning to all the trees and even heavier to the affected ones and burning of all the branches. Now, this isn't an uncommon tactic. Most farmers of the area prune heavily every few years, to rejuvenate their trees and burn the brunches. But I hate both of those tactics! I prefer a moderate pruning every year and the use of a chipper for the branches. Burning is such a waste of valuable organic matter, but this time I had no choice. So I grabbed my tools and started this, most unpleasant task.
The hard part finished a couple of days ago. I still have to water the trees with some organic fungicide (I'll probably use bluestone) and be alert for the years to come but I hope we'll get over it!
The six pictures above are from my very cheap and very old mobile phone so please forgive me for the pure photographic quality but those days good photography was the last thing in my mind :)
Anyway, problems are problems and Spring is Spring and it is all around us! So yesterday, I rewarded myself for all the hard work of the previous days with a very nice and very pleasant walk around my farm, with the company of my camera and now it's the time for some more enjoyable pictures!
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This is it! One more farm update has come to an end! I want to thank 
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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