Sustainability is imagining tomorrow, one, ten, or twenty years from now. Something is happening in olive growing today, but no longer by chance. Time has brought me closer to the protagonists of this renewed interest in the olive tree, but I'm not interested in comparing pruning techniques, branch selection, the number or length of tips—none of that.
I want understand the reason for certain actions, finally hear the voice of those who approach the olive tree with scissors or a saw, understand where the gaze falls, imagine the olive tree's reaction to a cut today. I want to hear the pruners speak, who work alone, in silence, or at most talk to themselves. I met one and even heard him talking to the olive tree: his name is Francesco Puccetti, 53, lives with Yesenia in Spina, Umbria..
After I don't know how many invitations, I traveled the few kilometers separating me from the beauty of the Umbrian countryside, the one crossed by the Marscianese. No industrial warehouses, the view disturbed only by lampposts and their wires. A beautiful landscape, even with the colors of the last days of January, clearly showing the signs of crop rotation: wheat, fodder, vineyards, fruit trees, dotted with many villages that maintain an unaltered urbanization tied to time, vigorously defended by the new generations, protecting the memory that makes them masters of their own identity: San Biagio della Valle, Cerqueto, San Valentino della Collina, Sant'Enea, Sant'Elena, Spina, Mercatello. It is precisely as I ascend from Mercatello that the beauty of the olive trees begins to color the landscape. Here are Yesenia and Francesco, pruners out of love for each other, but also for the olive trees, 'armed' with a pole with a long saw at the end. A useless weapon of destruction made of wood.
Francesco, how did this passion for pruning come about?
It all started five years ago. I was an inspector for three certification bodies, but I felt a deep desire for something new. My life was changed by Giorgio Pannelli and his Polyconic Vase Pruning School. I remember my first course, held in Fratticiola Selvatica, along the road that climbs from Bosco towards Gubbio. It was winter, seven degrees below zero. I arrived on my scooter. Pannelli saw me coming and said, 'This is a pruner...' Today, polyconic vase pruning fills my new life and that of Yesenia, who is always with me. We are happy, we live outdoors, it's beautiful. As a veterinarian, I started studying again—oh my, how much I've studied, from Roventini (1937) to today, and I still haven't finished understanding.
Why the polyconic vase and not one of the other systems?
"Tree cultivation systems are chosen based on local customs, sometimes even family traditions, but that's not how it works. A tree cultivation system presupposes knowledge of the variety and the adaptation of interventions to its characteristics. A training or pruning system, call it what you will, can't be a local custom, the Bari vase, the Sicilian umbrella.... I heard about this School, and by experiencing it, I was fascinated by the scientific logic and the enthusiasm with which Giorgio Pannelli brings it to life."
What are the basic principles?
"The plant responds to the laws of chaos; if you give it space, it naturally takes up all of it. Our job is to get the plant to use its energy not to produce wood, but fruit, making it productive. The high concentration of auxins inhibits the production of green and wood from the top down. We must induce the plant to change its energy management, tricking it with our tips—which some criticize for their aesthetics—creating a structure that allows the plant to self-manage its growth. With the polyconic pot, we work from the ground up; I prune 7.000 plants every year and have never picked up a pair of scissors. Giorgio Pannelli says: 'I'm tired of seeing our kids go to England to wash dishes in restaurants. Dedicate yourselves to olive growing. Our system makes olive growing sustainable. With our method, you can make a living from this profession. You won't get rich, but you can make a living from it.'" He says this, and thanks to the School, we know it's true.
Considering the neglect our olive growing is experiencing, do you have much to do?
"We're dealing with olive groves that have been abandoned for years; our first step is to eliminate any attempts at competition in the upper part of the tree, leaving a tip per cone. With that tip, I ensure the future acquisition of stability, which allows us to pursue balance, which involves finding the ideal height between the volume of the canopy and the roots. If you cut too high, the tree will obsessively try to regain balance with the roots."
Francesco and Yesenia work with forgotten olive trees, in need of reviving, of a variety that time has linked to these hills and especially to those of Trasimeno: the Dolce Agogia.
They say that an abandoned olive tree goes mad…
"The mad olive tree doesn't exist. The olive tree reacts to situations and protects itself. The Agogia must be tamed; it's capricious, arrogant, doesn't listen, and wants to go wherever it wants," says Francesco as he works with the saw. "We need to weaken it by making it do useless work. Look, I cut here and bring the foliage outward; the leaves attract the sap, the speed of its growth slows, and the plant directs its energy to the fruit and not the wood. My grandfather used to say that this is where the olive tree 'falls in love,' when it doesn't produce wood and all its energy goes outward, where the flowers and fruit grow."
Francesco and Yesenia have finished working on that plant: “Look how beautiful she is…”The tips rise toward the blue sky. I take a photo and send it to Giorgio Pannelli. The response is immediate: “It's embracing the sky!” Thanks Giorgio, great title!
