Water the tree thoroughly, remove it from its container, and untwist or cut any circling roots. Set the root ball in the hole. Use soil you removed from the hole to build up about an inch of soil on top of the root ball, and grade down from the trunk to the surrounding soil.
But do top the planting area with mulch. Water young trees two or three times a week during their first summer.
Give them a good four inches of water at each watering, and hydrate again when the soil dries out. Keep weeds removed from within at least a three-foot diameter of the young tree. Fertilize newly planted trees in the spring, after new growth begins. They only need a small amount of nitrogen, which can be delivered via compost , as well as conventional or organic fertilizers. In its first four years, prune the tree only as needed to maintain its shape.
Some gardeners do this only to areas of a tree that overhang a paved area, in an attempt to reduce the mess from falling fruit. You can prune off infected stems, or treat these greedy critters with neem oil, such as this one from Bonide, available from Arbico Organics. Bonide Neem Oil. For twenty years or so, California olive growers have been plagued by the olive fruit fly, which lays its eggs inside the developing fruit, destroying it.
Management of fruit flies is difficult, and best achieved via clean gardening practices. Some home gardeners have had luck with fly traps, such as these from Terro, available via Amazon. Trees can also be affected by olive anthracnose, a fungal disease. Treat this problem with a fungicide, such as this one from Garden Safe, available through Amazon.
Garden Safe Fungicide3 Concentrate. This ounce container connects to your hose end for easy distribution of the concentrated product. When you harvest your olives depends on what you intend to do with them, and what flavor you seek.
All olives start out green before turning a purplish color, and then deepening to black. The younger the olive, the more bitter it will be. Typically, olives are harvested at their green stage if their intended use is for the table, although some varieties are best when black. Olives must be processed — more on this in just a minute — within three days of harvest. You can either handpick the fruit from your tree, which is quite time-consuming, or you can place a tarp under the tree, and shake the limbs with a rake or other garden implement to dislodge the fruit onto to the tarp for easy pickup.
Raw olives are not tasty. Inventive humans have developed a number of ways to banish the bitterness from these otherwise tasty little ovals, curing them in oil, water, brine, lye, or simply salt. It can take anywhere from pounds of drupes to make one gallon of oil.
Begin your meal with a classic Greek salad like this one, from our sister site, Foodal. Made with homegrown cucumber , bell pepper , tomato , red onion , basil , oregano , and parsley , this is truly a garden-fresh delight!
From Vintage Kitty comes this delightful recipe for an asparagus salad, which features a lemon and light olive oil vinaigrette. This rustic delight evokes the Italian countryside.
And for dessert, how about a citrus olive oil cake, also from Sugar Love Spices? This confection utilizes a full cup of extra virgin oil, as well as a variety of citrus juices. So, what are you thinking? Is it time to add an olive tree to fill that blank spot in the backyard? Do you have an olive tree? Which variety? Tell us about your adventures with O. And if you decide a different fruit tree of the pitted variety is in your landscape plans, read these guides next:.
Uncredited photos: Shutterstock. First published July 9th, Last updated May 3rd, To Gretchen, nothing is more rewarding than a quick dash to the garden to pluck herbs to season the evening meal.
My grandparents had an olive orchard that now passed to my mother and father. It stands beautifully up on a hill in the Italian countryside. That is why olives for me are very important. This is a beautiful post with gorgeous pictures and very informative. Thanks for including two recipes that I love! I just planted 2 arberquina olive trees in South Florida.
It might not be cold enough for long enough time down here. They were on clearance at Lowes. So not a big investment. One is 4 ft tall other is about 2ft tall. Time will tell. Very valuable info. Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience. Please note that the Eden Project will be closed to all visitors from 6pm on Sunday 14 November until 10am on Monday 22 November, for an all-staff wellbeing week.
Eden horticulturist Shirley Walker takes a detailed look at the olive tree and shares her tips on how to grow your own at home. My love affair with the olive began many years ago on the Ionian island of Paxos.
I was captivated by this ancient and beautiful tree, brought to the island by the Venetians in the 15th century. The history of the olive, however, stretches back much further and it has become one of the most powerful symbols of the Ancient World. The olive has been a part of everyday life in the eastern Mediterranean since the beginnings of civilisation more than 6, years ago, but began life as a sprawling, spiny shrub in the Levant present day Syria and Lebanon.
Thousands of years of selection and breeding have turned it into the productive tree we know today. The olive is now an integral part of the Mediterranean landscape and the most important economic plant in the region with million trees in cultivation.
During the long, hot Mediterranean summer the trees become heavy with fruit, ripening from green to black as the winter approaches. I really admire Mediterranean plants because they have adapted over thousands of years to cope with extreme climatic conditions, poor soils and the effects of fire.
Our olive grove in the Mediterranean Biome at Eden contains some old, gnarled specimens but these are mere juveniles compared with some you find in the Mediterranean region — many are more than 1, years old. Carbon dating of old specimens in Lebanon has revealed trees several thousand years old. I find it amazing that these trees have been producing fruit and giving oil since Biblical times!
Certainly, olives do well in containers. When you buy your tree, pot it on into a larger pot, preferably terracotta rather than plastic and use a loam-based compost like a John Innes no. Place in a sunny position, keep the soil moist during the growing season and feed with a balanced liquid fertiliser once a month.
Olive trees are tougher than you think but try and choose a sunny, sheltered, well-drained position and plant in spring, after the risk of frost has passed, but before the end of June to give the tree plenty of time to establish before the following winter. It is harvested when it has turned maroon. The oil from this variety has a strong, bitter, sometimes spicy taste. The Hojiblanca olive flowers medium-late.
It is used as a black table olive and for olive oil. This variety produces an extra virgin olive oil that delights the palate: it is smooth and sweet at the start, but we soon get a bitter and spicy taste.
It produces very pleasant sensations that change in the mouth. The Picual olive is notable for being one of the most harvested in Spain. This variety flowers early and its fruit starts to emerge three years after being planted. It is aromatically different from the rest, and its flavor leaves a bitter and spicy taste in the mouth. Now you know how olives grow that are used in the most select olive oils.
I recommend that you try them, find out which best suits your palate and pair them with different foods to find the combination that you like the best. Latest News. September 2,
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