Ogrod - I'm sorry I never saw your posting. The tree should be watered only when a fair amount of soil is dry (stick your finger in it) or the leaves begin to just look a bit tired. Neilnfish - you say it's deciduous, but do you mean it's 'not' a conifer, or that it needs to have below freezing dormancy outside in winter? It's at least semi tropical, if not tropical, and while it might lose leaves in China in the fall, it would freeze to death in N. America outside except in the south and it's normally grown indoors under very bright light. If your leaves have fallen, there may be other reasons (and no 'deciduous' tree loses leaves in summer anyway). You may well have watered much too often, or provided no humidity tray (spraying is a waste of time), or not enough light, or else spider mites may be responsible. With no information about growing conditions where you live, it's hard to say. It's not meant to be a house plant, but at the same time cannot live outdoors (except in summer) in most of the U.S. and needs to be treated like other bonsai (tropicals) using the right kind of soil mix (mostly grit), 15 hours of bright sun all day and a fair amount of humidity.

Don't know about the seed but they are easy to propagate from cuttings. Take a cutting from new growth before it gets to hard(1st of July here in Tennesse) Dip it in water and then dip it in some rooting hormone and stick it in some very damp sand either in buckets or a bed, just don't let it ever dry out. Pull one out in two to three wks. and see want you've got. You can space them about 2" apart but don't leave them there to long or the roots will grow together. John

Thanks to both of you for the advice. I believe the seed I've collected is very fresh, so hopefully I'll have some success. ONE LAST QUESTION: after I've removed the pit from the fruit, should I plant the cleaned pit, or crack open the pit and plant the seed inside? Or is the pit the actual seed? I know this is probably a dumb question, but I have no experience with olives. Thanks. cd

Soak the seeds in rainwater for 24 hours then plant about 1/4 " deep in a good potting soil and they should germinate in about a week. I have found that the old seeds found around the base of a tree germinate the best.