Olives Trees ‘Off Season’
8Thursday 10 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Olive trees tend to produce a crop every two years, more or less. Some trees are a bit weird, producing every three years, and some even every year. I even have a couple of trees which are very confused, with one half of the tree producing one year, then the other half the next 🙂
This year looks like an ‘off season’ in general, so just 80-120KG (176-264 lbs) expected – an easy November-December for me then (yeah right; but not olive picking day in, day out at least). This tree just has a few, but they look pretty healthy so far.
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Uncle Spike's Adventures 
How old does an Olive tree need to be before it produces? And what are the environmental conditions that assist? – I planted two a Spanish and an Italian olive about 5 years ago – I am in USDA Zone 9a
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Good question. I have no idea about your ‘zones’, but certainly they love the heat, well drained rocky soil and annual pruning. Mostly fruit is produced on 2-5 year old branches – hence pruning generates growth which in time will bear fruit.
As to the age, I would ‘guess’ after 5+ years from a rootstock graft, so about 2 metres in height, with a trunk girth of 3cm+ diameter.
I’m no expert or professional – just basing this on how our trees ‘work’ over here.
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I am in Florida so the loose soil and heat are no problem I may try whacking it back a bit to promote some blooms. When does your fruit begin to show? What season?
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I am just starting harvesting actually this week (autumn), with flowers in spring (March), and small fruit visible by early summer (May/June).
Although I’m no longer posting on this blog, you are more than welcome to trawl through my posts on olive production and harvesting. May help…
https://unclespikes.wordpress.com/tag/olives/
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They look big! Nice and big!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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These aren’t bad Linda. Not looked to see if the ‘Domat’ (Tomato) variety are evident this season…. they grow well over an inch long, and have a soft flesh – yum 🙂
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You planted the olive trees…or do they grow in the wild?
In Hawaii, there were avocados, bananas, mangoes growing wild.
Here, many times I have a hard time finding fruits and vegetables at the grocery store that are not wilted and old!
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Most of my trees are 20-30 years old (before our time here), with a couple in the 100-150 year range. I have planted a few, but the take 5 years to amount to much. Yes, many do grow wild here, with acres of commercial areas too – guess the climate works!
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