Growing Olive Trees

[Weedygarden]

It looks like I can grow a couple types of olive trees in my area. It never occurred to me before now to try. There are olives for eating and olives for oil. For some, it is recommended to grow them in a large pot so they can be brought indoors during the winter. Do any of you have olive trees, besides Russian olives?

Having an oil producing olive would be great, but probably work and in need of special tools to extract the oils.

 

[Meerkat]

Weedy we can't grow them down here so don't know anything about them.
Maybe somebody else will know.

 

[Bacpacker]

Watching this thread. I'd love to find a way to grow them, for oil or eating.

 

[Caribou]

My grandparents had olives. Grandpa gave me a "fresh" olive right off the tree. That was the nastiest thing I've ever eaten. He was always pulling something. I inherited his sense of humour. Olives always remind me of him. I miss him.

 

[Weedygarden]

My grandparents had olives. Grandpa gave me a "fresh" olive right off the tree. That was the nastiest thing I've ever eaten. He was always pulling something. I inherited his sense of humour. Olives always remind me of him. I miss him.

Where did he live? I always thought you had to live in a very warm climate to grow olives. I was wrong, at least according to what I read today.

 

[Weedygarden]

This is a video about extracting oil from olives. Small batch. Oops! Adding the link now!

 

[Caribou]

Where did he live? I always thought you had to live in a very warm climate to grow olives. I was wrong, at least according to what I read today.

Southern California. He also had avocados, two kinds of oranges, lemons, and macadamias.

 

[backlash]

The only olive trees we have are Russian Olives. Worthless invasive species with large sharp thorns. The small lake behind my place is lined with them. I keep wishing there would be a fire and wipe them out but no such luck.

 

[Weedygarden]

The only olive trees we have are Russian Olives. Worthless invasive species with large sharp thorns. The small lake behind my place is lined with them. I keep wishing there would be a fire and wipe them out but no such luck.

They are often used in shelter belts in the plains states. They are a green grey, so you can tell them from a distance. I wonder if all olive trees have thorns?

 

[Terri9630]

We had one at our place in S Tx. We never did anything with it though. When the flowers dropped it looked like there were used Kleenex all over the yard.

 

[Weedygarden]

Southern California. He also had avocados, two kinds of oranges, lemons, and macadamias.

These are the kinds of things that I keep starting from the seed of things that I eat, except the macadamias. I have always thought they would grow in warmer climates but not where it snows.

 

[LadyLocust]

@Weedygarden I don't think they all have thorns as we had a huge tree when I was young and I'd climb it. If there were thorns, I don't remember getting jabbed. It's funny you started this thread as I have a big pot ready and need to call my 95 yr old Gma and ask her what type of olive tree to get. I want to make olives like hers. She has told me how she made them. They are a green olive and delicious. If I find out, I will certainly share it here.

 

[Patchouli]

The only olive trees we have are Russian Olives. Worthless invasive species with large sharp thorns. The small lake behind my place is lined with them. I keep wishing there would be a fire and wipe them out but no such luck.

You could maybe talk to your extension office. It seems to me there was a non-cash bounty on Russian olive shrubs and some areas were trying to eliminate or cut back invasive and non-native plants. Sounds like a good Boy Scout project to me. Lol

 

[Spikedriver]

My dad had one Russian Olive tree when I was a kid. It was ancient, he said it was there long before he was born in 1935. I don't remember anything special about it except that it seemed to always drop branches during storms...

 

[Weedygarden]

Neighbor had a Russian Olive by the street. It was there when they bought their house, almost 30 years ago. City made him take it out a couple years ago. I was kind of surprised, because we have other trees that are even more invasive. I have spoken to a city forester to see if we could get a ban on these, because other cities have a ban on them. Ailanthus altissima, commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, or in Chinese as chouchun, is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae. It is native to both northeast and central China, as well as Taiwan.

 

[Weedygarden]

This is an olive tree that is okay to grow in my zone: https://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/olive-trees/arbequina-olive

 

[Weedygarden]

I bought an olive tree plant. It's not very big, maybe a foot high. I have had it a couple of years now. I recently repotted most of my plants and I repotted it into a larger pot. I kept seeing small things on it that were like very small olives, but I had never seen it bloom. I check it out every day and today I see flowers where those things were. Since I repotted it a few weeks ago, it is really sending out new shoots. I would have expected that it would have taken years to flower and produce any fruit. Well, it doesn't have any fruit yet, but it is going in the right direction for fruit!

 

[elkhound]

i have tried twice now...growing them in my orchard...first time i put two out it dipped to -10f no windchill that winter...as they say that was end of that...lol...i called and told them what happened with temp and all but they replaced them for shipping cost alone...they failed too.

 

[Weedygarden]

i have tried twice now...growing them in my orchard...first time i put two out it dipped to -10f no windchill that winter...as they say that was end of that...lol...i called and told them what happened with temp and all but they replaced them for shipping cost alone...they failed too.

Like other things, the climate here just doesn't allow for certain things to grow. I have been thinking that a greenhouse might help, but for now, I am growing things like this in pots. I take them out in the summer, and bring them in when it gets cool.

 

[LadyLocust]

My olive tree is in the house for winter. @elkhound from what I read, they can do freezing temperatures for a day or two but not a hard freeze. Do you have a greenhouse?

 

[elkhound]

no greenhouse

 

[LadyLocust]

no greenhouse

You should have asked for one from Santa . Otherwise it would probably need to come in the house. They aren’t cheap.

 

[Binky]

no greenhouse

You need to make building a greenhouse one of your goals. Improvise, improvise, improvise! That's something I know for sure you are good at.

 

[Weedygarden]

Southern California. He also had avocados, two kinds of oranges, lemons, and macadamias.

I envy the ability to grow avocados, citrus and nuts, especially macadamias. I do know that it takes a really good greenhouse to be able to grow them in places like Colorado and Nebraska. I've seen videos of greenhouses in both of those places with citrus fruits and other tropical plants like pineapples.

 

[Weedygarden]

More of the buds are blooming on the olive plant today and the fragrance is very nice, very sweet. I wish we had smellavision. I didn't get a very good photo, but this is it today. I'm going to take a photo every day that I am home. I am going to be gone for almost a week, housesitting, so I won't be able to take photos every day.

 

[Weedygarden]

This is an olive tree that is okay to grow in my zone: https://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/olive-trees/arbequina-olive

Stark Brothers is currently sold out of this tree. But there are other options available online.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/153674...bL0sTfFLGHMhYTJvelWnwQHdhj-YhqjQaAqcGEALw_wcB