**6.1. Training system**

Around the Mediterranean basin, a traditional area of olive tree cultivation, there are many different training systems for olive trees, but now in modern orchards the most common shapes are:


The only pruning required is in the centre of the canopy to allow enough sunlight to come through and removing cross branches leaving the greatest possible number of leaves on the plants, because productivity and the oil quantity in the drupes is dependent on them.


Lately the training system suitable for olive orchards with over 1000 trees per hectare, is a single axis, obtained by thinning out the side branches in the apical part and by also removing those located below 0.5 m from soil during the first year of planting the to allow the passage of the machine. Once full production has been reached, plants are pruned so as to contain vegetation within 2.2 m in height and prevent the development of little branches of a diameter greater than 3 cm. In these groves mechanical pruning alternating with manual interventions is used to contain the development of foliage.

The training system is the result of the growing habit of the tree and pruning practices and it must be chosen before the planting as a function of the harvesting method and mainly of the area climate. Indeed, experimental tests of comparison between the "vase" and the "singletrunk" conducted over several years in the experimental field of CRA-OIL, located in Mirto Crosia (CS-Italy), showed the extreme difficulty in maintaining the last shape due to the climatic characteristics which are strongly favorable to olive plant development.
