Encouraging olive production

10 years ago

A quick search of the forum posting seemed to indicate that this is the forum for questions about olive trees - hope that's right!

I have a mature fruiting olive in my yard (I've been in the house for almost a year now). I'm fairly sure it's about as old as the house (so somewhere around 60 years old). I love olives and have enjoyed harvesting and curing some of the unwanted fruit from around Tucson. Today I picked about a gallon of green-ripe fruit from my tree - not a bad amount, but I'd love to get more.

The tree (and the house, for that matter) has been neglected for probably 20 years. It's not as full as some of the other olives in the neighborhood, and I'm sure it got no supplemental water for years. I know olives are drought tolerant, but EVERYTHING needs water during Tucson summers. I made sure to give it a few thorough soaking waterings during the worst of the summer heat, which seemed to help. But is there anything else I can do to encourage fruiting? Pruning? Removal of dead twigs? Any kind of fertilizer?

Thanks!

Comments (5)

chloeasha
10 years ago
Kriklaf-- I'll ask my husband and post back here. He took care of olive orchards his whole life. I do recall him mentioning that after enough years they replace the tree (starting new ones from the root suckers) as their fruiting declines in frequency and size of the fruit after a certain age. I also know they pruned the trees every year and used the green wood for BBQ because it burns.

OK, I called him and he said that your tree isn't too old yet-- that that takes a few hundred years lol. He said they will naturally take a break every other year, and that you just prune them to avoid crossed branches and to ensure the canopy isn't too thick and shading everything below it. They need about 14" minimum of water per year. In his area of Jordan they got about 17 inches, and theirs did fine without supplemental watering. I know you get a lot less, but I thought that may help with your calculations. So yeah. some water over the summer should help.

Oh and he said it's better to harvest by hand-- lots of people beat the olives out, but that cracks the branches and opens up your tree to disease. I thought I would toss that out there just in case. He says it sucks, but climbing and then running your hands in a loose grip down each branch is the best way. :) I hope that helps some. it sounds like you're doing a great job!
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
10 years ago
This page has pretty good general info on growing olives in CA.

Here is a link that might be useful: olive info
kriklaf
Original Author
10 years ago
Juliana - that was very helpful! Thank you and your husband so much. Good to know my olive tree is still in its productive years! And hoovb, thank you for the link - good information there.

We get about 10-11 inches of rain per year here if the monsoons are decent - good to know about how much I need to be supplementing. And yeah, I was definitely climbing and hand-picking. Next year I need a bigger ladder!
chloeasha
10 years ago
It's also a lot hotter where you are, so I would definitely space out that watering pretty evenly. Naturally they get rain Nov-May in their native environment there and then nothing during the summer... but it doesn't get super hot there-- in the low 90s or so and then in the 60s/70s at night even in July/August.

Anyway, good luck! I love Tucson. I have relatives there. I'm originally from NV, so I feel you on the desert gardening. :)

Julianna
Nikitas_10a, Corfu
10 years ago
Twenty years is a long time to leave an olive tree without any pruning. I think a nice pruning (doesn't need to be severe) will help a lot.

Nikitas