Olive longevity and olive types

[Derek73]

Hi all - I live on a property in Adelaide with a decent number of poorly managed (very tall) olive trees which I am planning to harvest for oil in June. From my research so far you only have 2 days up your sleeve before pressing before the olives start to deteriorate. I am hoping I would get one or two more days out of the olives if they are still on the branch but have not been able to find any confirmation on the web. I plan to cut and stack up all of the high branches that can't be reached in the first couple of days to make a quick raking job in the following couple of days. Do you think the olives on the cut branches will be slower to deteriorate, any advice will be appreciated?
Also, what are people's thoughts on mixing olives for olive oil. Seems I have two types of trees, a tree with larger olives that are clumped and a tree with smaller more spaced out olives, see attached. The majority of olives would be harvested from the larger olives but if time permits will bulk out the harvest with the smaller olives, that is unless the over riding opinion is you should not mix? Thanking you in advance and looking forward to your replies.

 

[DiggersJo]

They do deteriorate, but I have known some in Italy store them a few days, but it is not normal. There they have many Frantoio (olive pressing places) and take them daily, if not even more frequent. Mind you I have seen them there stacked up for a while. I don't think them being on the branches will help them keep better, perhaps even the opposite. Mixing is very normal as many have different types for resilience .