Hi,
After cutting branches off the olive trees can they be left on the ground to kill the weeds underneath or is there a reason they have to be burnt. As after removing the first lot we found the weeds underneath were dead.

You might find that is is a nice harbouring place for Mosca Negre also if you don't clear them up the wind will do it for you, and if you eventually intend to harvest you will curse leaving them on the ground, and finally they will become a fire risk as they dry out!!

Watch out for the creepy crawlies Phil!

From what I was told leaving the branches/leaves in a pile, or shredding them and leaving them to rot is a problem as there is a fungus that can start growing underneath and this will kill the olive trees.

Get yourselves a couple of donkeys.
Mine are clearing everything, they eat all the trimmings and just leave me with stuff large enough to burn in my wood burner and they are eating all the weeds and grass and manuring the soil so i can grow what I want.
Totally organic!!!!!

Thanks fellow lumberjacks, but I don't need cuttings for mosca negre ( am getting confused the negre arn't the ones in black shirts driving police cars ) as I seem to be on every creepies hit list for biting, stinging etc. and I find the wind seems to dump everything on my property, as for the fire risk I should put my wood stove outside next to the cuttings as I seem to be a failed arsonist and my fires are very hard to start. As I study my cuttings a smile crosses my face as my last line of defence against the creepies has finally arrived THE AIRFORCE bless the swallows. As for the donkeys, sorry but it was a hard winter and ate the last one. Made nice salami.