How old are your trees? I have heard somewhere that they
are very intolerant of frost; that they won't bear if it
gets too cold.... don't know if this is true, tho.
Do you know how old they have to be to bear fruit?
I would be interested in hearing how they do.
Keep us posted.

HI Flying Wahini,

The trees are babies between 1-2 years old. From what I have read it will take between 5 and 7 years for them to develop decent olives. Definitely frost can affect the fruits especially n the early spring when the blooms are developing. Colder temperatures around 20-15 degrees will injure the trees. So I am taking a chance! We get cold snaps that could go that low but mostly we stay in the 20s on our coldest Jan and Feb nights and than warm up quickly during the day. The mission trees should be more tolerant of the cold than the kalamata. Wish me luck.

Hi-

I was the one who posted the olive tree question a few years ago. I remember seeing a beautiful olive tree in Las Cruces about two years ago. It was on the nw side of town. I think it was about 10 feet tall and it was thriving. I haven't been back to see how it has fared since then, but I suspect it's still there and doing pretty well.

I think olive trees are well worth trying in LC, even if your trees never bear fruit. They are beautiful trees and very long lived. Larger trees generally take cold temps down to about 15 degrees F. I've seen a fair number of them growing in El Paso.

If you don't mind my asking, could you tell me where you purchased your kalamata and Mission olives? I'm now living in Tucson, where there are many beautiful olive trees (Mission, Kalamata, Sevillano, etc.) The U of A campus has beautiful old trees planted in the mid-1890's. Unfortunately, the only olives that are legally sold here now are the fruitless varieties.

Best of luck to you and your olive trees. Please let us know how they do this winter.

Regards,

cd

HI CD,

I will be on the lookout for that tree on the NW side.

I bought my trees online from Ingold's Nursery for the Missions but I can't remeber where I got the Kalamata except that the purchase was handled through growquest. I went to school at the Univers it of Arizona and never paid attention to the Olive trees while I was there.

best
Bill

I know in my area of the Mojave Desert olives do well. However I absolutly love the look of th Russian Olive. It has soft leaves, a shiny mahagony colored trunk and large spines that turn into branches the following year. The fruit is ornimental (?) and very small, the flowers have a sweet apricot sent. Does anyone know where I can get these trees?

Regarding the Russian Olive, I think there might be some people cringing over here in NM at the thought of someone actively seeking out Russion Olive. They're just so common and invasive here. I can totally understand the attraction though, they are beautiful and useful. Surprisingly you can still buy them in many nurseries in NM, but I don't know about farther west. The best way would be to come dig some up over here in the winter when they're dormant.

Oh yeah, if you wanted to try something similar that is native and not invasive, check out some of the Shepherdia species, also called Buffaloberry. They are close relatives that share the silver foliage and ornamental berries, but they remain shrubby.

I have a couple olive trees in Dona Ana county that have been in the ground for several years. The trick is to keep them dry in the winter because of the night time temps (the opposite of their watering schedule in their native Mediterranean climate). The same thing is recommended for cold hardy palms. We only get frost burn on the W. robustas; the Sabals, Phoenix, Jubaea, Braheas do well in their dry soil.

Thank you all for the information regarding olive trees in the Southwest United States. I have been interested in learning if olive trees can be grown in the Las Cruces Area. I will do some research on the hardiness of the varieties fabaceae_native and olivelover suggested.
Also, Oliverlover, could I come take a look at the three trees you planted in Nov? Have you found the olive tree on the NW side of town?

Anyone having any success harvesting olives from trees in Southern NM/West TX?

anyone able to successfully harvest olives in Southern NM/West TX? I have some beuatiful trees but no olives.

How old are your trees?
I know that drying winds can be hard on the flowers. Do your olives flower during our spring winds?

They do flower in Spring but no olives until this year on one tree, a Frantonio cultivar. Some olives are developing on it now. We'll see what may ripen at season's end.

I live in the Southern CA desert, and the coldest it gets here is low 40's. Olive trees produce and thrive here. We get strong winds all year, and the winds don't seem to affect olive production. Many of our golf courses are planted with olive trees, and in the fall the olives ripen and drop everywhere!!

You can string Christmas lights in your trees in winter to help them stay warmer, and also there is a product called Cloud Cover Plant Protector. It's organic, and protects against freezes and heat.

Good luck!
Suzi