Hello wise souls! As I scour the web for olive related information I’ve come across this incredible site and the wealth of info within. I’m hoping to get some guidance from you on a couple olive related questions.
I live in Morgan Hill, California, with a climate and soils that suit Olives well. We’re creating a small grove from scratch on our ranch and I can’t seem to get a straight answer on pollinizers. We’d like to grow a combination of Cerignola, Mission, Manzanilla, Picholine, Ascolana and hopefully Sevillano (if I can find any). Probably about 50 trees in all and yes, primarily table olives! I’ve read/heard that as long as we have 6+ varieties of trees, pollination should work well. I also hear that its absolutely necessary to have Pendolino/Maurino/Leccino for some of these varieties. Obviously we we are not aiming for producer-level, maximum fruiting–just a healthy, reasonable quantity of blossoms. What’s your experience with selecting pollinizers and combining trees for reasonable fruiting?
One more question: We have gophers! I’ve heard once or twice that it’s fine to plant olive saplings in chicken wire baskets/cages (that we’ll make), in order to protect young roots and the base of young trunks. That said, I’m concerned. Is there any way this would hinder root growth?
With deep gratitude for any guidance you can provide!
I’m in Tracy, CA and have about 25 olive trees of 16 different varieties (one or two trees per variety). Most of my olive trees are table varieties, but I do have the Tuscan quartet of Frantoio, Leccino, Maurino and Pendolino, which I use mostly for oil. I do not have any issues with lack of pollination, and I don’t think you will have either. Even a few years back when I had just one olive tree (a Leccino), it had a very good fruit set with pollen likely coming from trees in the neighborhood. Pendolino is considered a universal pollinizer not because of special properties of its pollen but because it blooms for a long period of time. With multiple varieties of trees you should be just fine with pollination and fruit set.
I don’t have gophers so I don’t have an answer on that. I know that gophers are big lovers of fig roots, and people in Santa Rosa/Sonoma areas, where gophers are widespread, use gopher baskets when they plant fig trees. There are also many olive trees growing in those areas, so some solution to the gopher problem should exist.
Regarding table olive varieties, I suggest you consider adding Hass Improved Manzanillo (I like it much better than the usual Manzanillo), Nocellara del Belice, Amphissa, and Kalamata.
A couple of other things you should consider. First, allergies. Olive trees produce tons of pollen and it’s very light, and the wind brings it everywhere. If somebody in your family suffers from spring allergies, olive trees will exacerbate it. Second, olive fruit fly (OFF). It’s the main pest of olives, and now it’s everywhere in California. I spray my olive trees with Surround (finely powdered kaolin clay), which helps dramatically against OFF. Anyway, if you’re going to grow olives, you should be aware of this issue.
Have you found a good supplier of trees near Tracy? Particularly for the additional varieties you mentioned? I’m going as far as Santa Rosa to get ours.
Do you spray the entire tree w/ Surround or just the trunks?
May I ask what your watering habits are for your trees and how they’ve worked for you? We’d really like to dry farm within 5 yrs.
I’ve bought trees from a variety of sources, some online and some local. Surprisingly, you can sometimes find a Kalamata tree in Home Depot. A few years ago I bought 20 trees from Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery, this is a wholesale nursery, and their minimum order is 20 trees. I bought 4 trees each of 5 varieties: Lucques, Amphissa, Bella Di Cerignola, Itrana, and Ascolana. These were tiny 4" plants. After growing them in pots for a year, I kept 10 trees for myself (2 of each variety) and sold 10 trees to a gentleman in Santa Rosa area. Nocellara del Belice I bought online at Bay Flora. Hass Improved Manzanillo is sold by Monrovia, they distribute to various nurseries in the Bay Area. One Green World offers some interesting varieties selected at the Nikitski Botanical Garden in Crimea, but I already have more olive trees than I need.
You need to cover the entire tree with Surround, the clay residue on leafs, twigs, and fruit irritates the flies and they leave the fruit alone. Two applications per season (mid-July and late August/early September) are sufficient to keep 99% of fruit worm-free.
I use drip irrigation. I think you need to water olive trees at least until they are five-year old. Even for older trees if you don’t water them, this will significantly reduce the harvest. Perhaps very mature trees (ten years or older) can be dry farmed, but I’m not there yet, so cannot comment.
My approach to oil processing is very unsophisticated and crude. First, I crush olives with a commercial-grade meat grinder (I don’t use it for meat, only for olives). The resulting paste is mixed (it’s called malaxing) for a few hours in a couple of standard home-kitchen mixers, at lowest speed. At the next step, you’re supposed to use a press, to separate the liquid from the cake, but I find this too time consuming. So I just put the paste into a colander covered with a piece of cheese cloth. The liquid drips into a pan for a couple of days. In this way I probably loose about 20–30 per cent of oil, but this is good enough for me, since I don’t have to do anything while the liquid collects. Then I pour the liquid into a high jar and let it stay for a day to separate — due to the difference in density the oil will be on the top and water/juice on the bottom. Finally, I collect the oil from the top layer with a spoon and pour it into a smaller jar or bottle where it’s kept until consumed.
I’m familiar with most of these suppliers and will round back with them to see what they currently have. I’m having good luck with Novavine in Santa Rosa, who has about 25+ varieties on hand.
I’m fascinated by the variety of trees you have. Your table olive supply must be very interesting indeed!
Have you done the nitrogen fertilizing that I hear is recommended? Any need for amendments?