This update comes directly from Stijn, who manages the grove and tracks every stage of the olive cycle. We share these seasonal notes so you understand exactly what goes into your bottle of Solo EVOO, and what the trees are telling us right now.

If you’ve been following along with the grove this season, you may have noticed something a little unsettling in our recent photos: small olives yellowing and falling from the branches before they’ve had a chance to grow. This is called the June drop and it’s one of the most important, and most misunderstood, moments in the olive calendar.

What Is the June Drop?

After flowering and fertilization, the olive tree goes through a deliberate thinning process. A portion of the olives that were successfully fertilized simply don’t make it. They stay small, turn yellow and brown, and fall on their own. The tree isn’t failing, it’s managing its resources, shedding the fruit it can’t support so that what remains has a better chance of developing fully.

This process is normal. But it’s amplified by heat and drought. Right now we’re in a stretch of 34–35°C days with very little rain, which pushes the trees to shed more than they might in a cooler, wetter June. This is part of the reality of our unirrigated grove, and part of what makes each harvest unique.

What This Means for Your Oil

A higher June drop doesn’t necessarily mean lower quality, often the opposite. Fewer olives on the tree means more nutrients and energy concentrated in the fruit that survives. When those olives reach harvest, they can yield oil with more intensity and character. This is one of the reasons early-harvest, low-yield olive oil like Solo EVOO has so much more flavour than mass-produced alternatives.

The Numbers Behind the Drop

Olive fertilization rates are notoriously low. Under normal conditions, only 2–3% of flowers on a branch end up becoming fruit, with strong seasons peaking around 4–5%. That means for every hundred tiny flowers that bloom, a handful of olives is all you can realistically expect.

A grower an hour south of us tracked a single fruiting branch on his Frantoio, over 170 flowers, and after the June drop, he was still at 11% fertilization. That’s exceptional.

That result, roughly 20 surviving olives from 170+ flowers, is far above the seasonal norm. For the Frantoio variety, known for variable self-fertilization, an 11% retention rate after the drop points to genuinely outstanding conditions for that tree. Whether that translates across the rest of the grove remains to be seen, but it’s encouraging news heading into summer.

Why We Don’t Use Irrigation

One question we hear from customers: why not irrigate, to reduce the impact of dry summers like this one?

For established trees like ours, going without irrigation is a deliberate choice. It keeps the trees working harder, sending roots deeper to find water, and that stress, managed carefully, contributes to the complexity and depth of the oil they produce. It’s the same logic behind low yields and early harvest: less can be more, when the conditions are right.

A Note on Our 2026 Harvest

It’s still early, and olive yields can shift significantly between now and October. What we can say is that the trees have come through flowering in good shape, fertilization rates look promising, and we’ll be harvesting early, as always, to capture the oil at its most vibrant. We’ll share more updates as the season progresses.

Thank you for following the grove with us. Every bottle of Solo EVOO starts with moments exactly like this, trees making decisions, growers paying attention, and the season unfolding in its own way.

---

Words by Stijn grove manager & contributor, Solo Olives. Photos 1 & 2 by Jury, Photos 3 & 4 by Stijn.