Hard Working Farmers

[oil barron]

What sort of irrigation are you using? If you have the water you can't beat berm and flood. Trickle encourages shallow rooting then the trees fall over when they are 20

 

[Old McDonald]

Drippers. Water gets down to the drains easily enough. I do not like flood irrigation except on grassland as in Yeoman's keyline system. You need the right sort of place and a big acreage to do that though.

No need to encourage shallow rooting in olive trees because they are naturally shallow rooted. Weird for a tree that is so drought hardy, but I have grubbed out about 80 mature ones. A big digger can lift out the whole rootball and replant the trees somewhere else. It is big business these days because people with a lot of money pay big sums for mature olive trees to be plonked in their gardens.

I would expect the almonds to root more deeply because there is no bedrock within a few feet of the surface across most of the property. It shows above the surface in the yard area, and is made use of in the lowest parts of the storage areas which form the bottom storey of the house - above ground at the back, and ground level at the front to give a split level beuilding.