My Olive trees will not bear olives?

[Pizza Man]

I purchased 5 olive trees about 10 years ago and they produced olives the first year. They have not produced any since. Does anybody have any idea how I can get them to produce?

Lou

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by Pizza Man

I purchased 5 olive trees about 10 years ago and they produced olives the first year. They have not produced any since. Does anybody have any idea how I can get them to produce?

Lou

I really don't know much about olive trees, but fruit and nut trees do like lots of water.

My advice would be to find someone close to you who has olive trees that have been producing.
Maybe they could show you the "trick" to get your trees to produce.
i.e. do as they do.

Let us know how it turns out... Next year I guess?

Dave

[asudavew]

I have to ask..because I don't know.

But what were the olives like the first year.
I've only had olives from a can or a jar. Can you eat them off the tree?

Or do they require pickling.

Thanks

Dave

[gjbingham]

Dave,
Yes. You cannot eat them off the tree. I'm not sure of how they are treated, probably something like pickling, but the're not edible fresh.

Pizza Man, if nothing else, Olive wood burns extremely well in the oven

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Pizza Man, if nothing else, Olive wood burns extremely well in the oven

Now that one cracked me up!

Thanks for the laugh this morning George.

[Inishta]

It is strange that the trees have not fruited. Do they have flowers in spring? Most olives are self pollinating but there are self-incompatable varities that need cross pollination. If there are other olive trees in the vicinity wind pollination should suffice but insects also help. Olives bear two types of flower, the staminate which only have male parts and will not set fruit and perfect flowers with anthers and pistils.

Have the trees been pruned yet? If not perhaps this spring would be a good time. Since olive trees do not go dormant wait until all chance of frost has passed and prune side shoots back by one third. Be careful not to prune the leader or top branches as this will stunt the upward growth and result in a lot of lateral growth turning it into more of a shrub than a tree. Olives need cool nights and warm days and can be vigorous growers. Fertilizing in spring may help flower production. Watering is quite easy. Being from the Mediterranean they are quite drought resistant. We tend to water once a week and the tree root is given a good soaking. Spraying the tree with water is not effective. Do not allow them to become waterlogged. Your trees are very young and will probably outlast many generations. Olive wood in the WFO is superb but don't rush them.

Olives can not be eaten straight from the tree because of the presence of glucosides. There are a lot of different ways to preserve olives but all require the removal of this. Green olives are produced by picking when fully grown but not ripe and black olives are picked later. A traditional method of preserving uses Lye. This is a caustic substance and although fast the olives need to be rinsed and further treated. Last year 'she who must be obeyed' soaked ours in a brine solution, changed every week, for three weeks. I believe the jars were also turned over regularily. The olives were then rinsed and drained, put back in the jars and covered with extra virgin olive oil and various herbs. A lot of Turkish women preserve them in brine.

For us this is more about 'the good life' than neccesity as we can choose from dozens of varieties in the local markets priced from £1 ($2) a kilo up.

Enjoy

[gjbingham]

Inishta,
What do you do for a living - rocket scientist? You're pretty smart about a lot of things.

[Inishta]

George...............I decided that there were other things in life than the 'rat-race' so took early retirement and moved to Turkey. As far as being as being smart.........if that was the case I would have found Forno Bravo before I put in the oven..................

[gjbingham]

I'm all over that early retirement stuff. Still don't have enough time in the day to get all my self-imposed work done.

[Frances]

Ha, now you're starting to sound just like my dad

He's retired and has the nerve to tell a busy oven-building mother of three how stressed out he is and how he has no time for anything! I love him a lot, but sympathise I cannot!

Though come to think of it George, if you have small kids in the house you're not really retired, you just switched jobs...