When to prune olive trees in Mallorca

Prune olives in late winter, roughly February into early March, once hard cold has passed and before the tree starts moving. That timing gives the wounds a full growing season to close and avoids cutting into the flowering that sets the year’s fruit.

Why late winter

An olive pruned in autumn goes into the cold with open wounds. One pruned in May loses the growth it has just made and often the crop with it. The late winter window is a compromise the island has settled on over a long time, and it holds for ornamental trees as much as for productive ones.

How hard to cut

Less than most people think, and never all in one year. The traditional aim is an open centre that lets light and air through the canopy, achieved by removing crossing branches, dead wood and the vertical shoots that grow straight up from the main limbs. Taking more than about a quarter of the canopy in a season stresses the tree and produces a forest of new shoots in reply.

An old tree that has not been touched for a decade is a three-year project, not an afternoon.

What to do with the prunings

Chip them if you can, and use the chippings as mulch under the tree. Burning is restricted at various times of year and in various municipalities, so check before lighting anything. Leaving a pile of olive wood lying around is worth avoiding for the same reason it is worth avoiding with palms: it is habitat you did not intend to create.

The symptom that means stop

If the tree is dying back from the top or from one side, with leaves browning from the tip inwards while the base still looks green, stop pruning and get it looked at. That pattern is consistent with Xylella fastidiosa, which is established in the Balearics, and it needs testing rather than a haircut.

More on that in Xylella fastidiosa and your garden, and the rest of the year is set out in the Mallorca planting calendar. Palms follow entirely different rules, covered in palm tree pruning on Mallorca. If the trees are beyond what you want to take on, send the job through and vetted local companies will quote it directly.