Traditional vs Hedgerow Groves: Two Ways to Grow an Olive
Drive through olive country and you will see two very different landscapes. One is the old picture: big, gnarled trees standing well apart, some centuries old. The other is new and startling — olives planted like a vineyard, in dense hedgerows a machine straddles at speed. Both grow olives; they grow very different economies.
These two landscapes are not just different ways to plant a tree; they are two different bets on what olive oil is for. One is slow, expensive, rooted in place and built to last generations. The other is fast, cheap, machine-run and built to turn over. Neither is simply better, and the mistake is to moralise about them — to assume old means good and modern means bad. What ends up in your bottle depends far more on the maker than on the shape of the grove.
The traditional grove
The classic grove plants trees widely — often just a few dozen to a hundred or so per hectare — and lets them grow tall and broad over decades or centuries. These groves are productive per tree but slow, labour-intensive and largely hand-harvested, with nets spread beneath the canopy. They suit steep, terraced or marginal land that machines cannot work, and they are where most of the world’s great traditional oils still come from. The cost is high and the yield per hectare modest, but the trees can live and bear for generations, and the human care shows in the bottle.
| Traditional grove | Hedgerow (SHD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Density | ~30-150 trees/ha | 1,500-2,500 trees/ha |
| Harvest | By hand, poles and nets | Straddle machine, whole row at once |
| Land | Steep, terraced, marginal — all workable | Flat, irrigable only |
| Varieties | Almost any, incl. big characterful ones | Only compact ones (Arbequina et al.) |
| Productive life | Generations | Shorter; higher input footprint |
| Strength | Place-rooted, distinctive oils | Affordable, fresh, consistent oil |
The hedgerow revolution
The modern alternative, pioneered in Spain, is super-high-density or hedgerow planting: small varieties like Arbequina set close together in long rows and harvested by a straddle machine that picks an entire row in one pass. It slashes labour cost and lets growers mill huge volumes fast and fresh — and that freshness can genuinely help quality. The trade-offs are real: it needs flat, irrigable land, suits only certain compact varieties, and the intensive system has a shorter productive life and a heavier input footprint. Neither model is simply better. The hedgerow makes affordable everyday oil possible; the old grove keeps the distinctive, place-rooted oils alive.
Which makes better oil?
Neither, reliably — and that is the honest answer the labels rarely give. A fast, fresh, well-milled hedgerow Arbequina can easily beat a carelessly made traditional oil, and often does. What decides quality in the bottle is freshness, care and milling, not the grove’s shape. But there is a real difference at the top end: the characterful, variety-driven oils of a specific place — the fierce, the bitter, the utterly distinctive — still tend to come from the older, hand-tended groves, because those are the varieties and sites a machine cannot serve. Read the producer, not the planting style.
Choosing between the two
- Do not assume hedgerow means bad or traditional means good — a fresh hedgerow oil can beat a careless traditional one.
- What matters in the bottle is freshness, care and milling, not the grove’s shape.
- For characterful, place-rooted oils, look to older hand-tended groves and named varieties.
- Read the producer and the harvest date rather than judging by the planting style.
Traditional vs hedgerow groves: common questions
What is the difference between traditional and hedgerow olive groves?
Traditional groves plant a few dozen big trees per hectare, hand-harvested; hedgerow (super-high-density) groves pack well over a thousand small trees per hectare, machine-harvested in one pass.
Is traditional olive oil better than hedgerow oil?
Not automatically. Freshness, care and milling decide quality more than grove shape — though the most characterful, place-rooted oils still tend to come from old hand-tended groves.
Why can’t traditional groves be machine-harvested?
The trees are big, old and irregular, often on steep or terraced land, so they are picked by hand with nets. That labour is a large part of the cost.
What are the downsides of hedgerow groves?
They need flat, irrigable land, suit only a few compact varieties, have a shorter productive life and a heavier input footprint, and narrow the diversity of grown olives.
How do I choose a good olive oil then?
Read the producer and the harvest date rather than the planting style. Freshness and care matter most, and named-variety oils from small growers give you the distinctive ones.
Do not assume hedgerow means bad or traditional means good — a fast, fresh hedgerow Arbequina can beat a carelessly made traditional oil easily. What matters in the bottle is freshness, care and milling, not the grove’s shape. But if you want the characterful, variety-driven oils of a specific place, those still tend to come from the older, hand-tended groves. Read the producer, not the planting style — the grove tells you the economics, the maker tells you the quality.
Based on olive horticulture and modern grove systems.