A wet spring in Sicarico — and why we are pruning now

So far, 2026 has been one of the wetter years we have known in Sicarico.

Puglia has a reputation for drought and sun, and usually it is deserved. But this spring brought more rain than we are used to, week after week, in a rhythm you would sooner expect in the north than on this hill.

The soil grew heavy. The grasses along the rows shot up. And the trees themselves — that is where the story begins.

When an olive tree gets a lot of water, it reacts in a way that makes sense for the tree itself, but not always for the harvest. All along the trunk and the main branches, young vertical shoots start to grow. Water shoots, we call them. Fast, green branches that claim all the energy available. In Italian they are called succhioni — “suckers”. The name is apt.

This year we saw more of them on a single tree than we would see on a whole row in a normal year.

Water shoots look healthy. They are green, they are vigorous, they grow straight up. But they bear no olives, or hardly any. And meanwhile they take water and nutrients away from the branches that do — the horizontal, lower-hanging branches that gave us our harvest last year and the year before.

So we prune.

This isn't the February pruning, when we set the shape of the tree for the whole year. This is more precise work, and slower. Tree by tree, branch by branch. With thirty-eight trees we can afford that — we know each one individually: which one bore heavily last year, which one was quieter, which one has an older main branch that can gradually be replaced. Some water shoots are allowed to stay. The rest go.

What lies on the ground now is the evidence of a good spring that was too generous. Green branches, some up to a metre long, piled up between the rows.

Why now, and not later?

Because July and August in Puglia have their own laws. The rains stop abruptly. The temperature climbs towards forty degrees. At that point every tree needs to be able to focus its energy on the fruit that is just beginning to develop — not on dozens of idle shoots that only soak up sun and water.

A tree that is pruned well today goes into the summer with less green mass to keep cool, more water available for the fruit, and better air circulation between the branches. That last point also helps against fungi and insects — both thrive in dense, damp growth.

For us it means being out in the grove every morning before ten, while the temperature is still bearable and our hands are still supple. With pruning shears and a bucket of coffee within reach. Around midday it's done, and we retreat to the house until the sun drops a little. For the trees it means rest. For this autumn's harvest it means we are looking after our chances as well as we can — although growing olives is in the end always a conversation with the weather, and not one that we lead.

How 2026 turns out, we will know in November. For now, Sicarico smells of cut wood and thyme. Thirty-eight trees, one by one, ready for the heat.