Olive polycultures and harvesting techniques

Hi y'all

Im designing a new olive grove on 6 acres and wondering if anyone has any thoughts or experience with how to design with harvesting in mind.

Trees will be in rows on contour, mostly olives but also pomegranates, fig, mulberry, interplanted as well as lavender, rosemary, thyme. We will be harvesting manually with nets and wiggly finger machines. My biggest question / concern is how to both get the max benefit of the polyculture while also being efficient in harvesting.

One thought is to just plant densely and then drape nets over understory plants for harvesting. Another thought is planting companion plants in the rows so that under the olives are clear and much easier to put down nets.

I am curious if anyone has experience or thoughts how to manage and balance efficiency of harvesting with benefits of a polyculture.

Thanks.

I don't, but I'm interested in any answers you get.

Welcome to Permies!