Olive trees

14 years ago

Anyone have any advice on picking a good olive tree (or 2) to grow in Alabama? And where to get them, if locally, in Lee Co.

Thanks

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Comments (6)

jim_in_huntsville_al
14 years ago
I recently (in early April) planted a locally-grown Tea Olive that I bought from a nursery here in Huntsville and it seems to be doing real well. It lost a number of leaves the first few weeks but has put out a lot of new growth and seems to be taking off. We had a Tea Olive at our former home in S.C. that we really enjoyed (the fragrance was terrific all summer and it looked great and was easy to maintain.)
tsmith2579
14 years ago
Are you talking about real, edible olives (Olea europaea) or tea olive (osmanthus fragrans)? As I recall the Vine and Olive colony in Demopolis, AL failed because the olive was not adapted to west Alabama soil. The soil in Marengo county and east along Hwy 80 has a layer of chalk under the soil. I believe Lee county is included in the chalk underlayment. See the link below to get the phone number of the Auburn Cooperative Extension Services. They should be able to answer all of your questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Auburn Cooperative Extension Agent
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Not sure where you are, but there are olive presses scattered throughout California. You go there with your load, and they will give you the oil (and keep the pomace as well as some of your money). An olive press is much more complex and expensive than an apple press. It will be 10 years before you are up to 30-40 lbs of olives per tree per year (and those 100 lbs will give you only 10-20 lbs of oil, which is very little. My family of three uses 30-35 lbs a year. If you do the pressing yourself, you may only get 5-10 lbs). In the intervening time, I would just eat some fresh (fresh olives fried with a drop of oil and salt are wonderful, and not bitter at all while hot), freeze some (they are great in all sorts of stews and braised meates) and cure most of them. Middle Eastern friends do the curing in their bathtub. For bigger crops, water in May through July, but withhold water later.
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Not seeing how major pruning by a contractor every so many years into perpetuity is an economical choice. And if you have turned them into pollards or otherwise severely pruned specimens then the charm of the natural shapes has already been lost - maybe plant some more suitable kinds of trees among them, cut the olive trees out after the new set is of some size. Otherwise they should probably be trimmed frequently, maintained as formal specimens instead of getting whacked back hard at longer intervals. Every time they are forced to regrow most of the top that was present at the time they are drawing on nutrient reserves in the trunks and may be gradually becoming diminished by the repeated assaults. There is also the possibility of trunk decay developing due to the large pruning cuts being made. For planting near swimming pools you want plants with large parts that do not get sucked past filters. As you have described olive trees are probably about as bad a choice as one could come up with.
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i wouldnt doubt it because there are naturalized parrots in many cool areas. Brooklyn is a zone 7 and has parrots thriving in some communities. They are in abundance too but arent very widespread and live together. Just like all other city birds they eat a lot of food that is on the ground but will eat a lot of other foods too. They dont look like tropical parrots, but can be trained to talk, but probably will never do so in the wild. Definitely not those beautiful tropical looking parrots you see as pets or in the zoo, but they do have nice green colors to them. But as far as stealing fruit, there are lots of other much more common birds that will do that job a lot quicker than these parrots in brooklyn (I believe they are called quaker parrots and are from argentina). I think they are also in other areas but Im really only familiar with the ones in Brooklyn. Good luck! -Alex
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I also live in Southern California. I bought these two fruitless olives at the same time 4-5mo ago, but the one on the right is turning yellow. Both are still in their original pots and drain into the decorative pots that also drain and are not waterlogged. I don't water them differently but the green one on the left gets slightly more shade. Should I repot? Feed? Please tell me what I need to do. Thanks in advance.
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User
14 years ago
Tsmith, I'd find it very interesting to plant a real, edible olive tree or two if necessary for fruiting. In Mobile. I've already planted a satsuma and 2 kumquats, about 5 or 6 kiwi.

And I'd love to get the fruiting passion vine. It seems to be hard to find.
tsmith2579
14 years ago
Moccasinlanding, you are out of the chalk layer in Mobile so you might be more successful and Mobile county has a much more Mediterranean type climate than does Montgomery or Demopolis. They had small Olea europaea (edible) for sale at the recent Bham Botanical Gardens sale. Myer's nursery has some pot of miniature olive in Pelham today. I am assuming the miniature plants make edible olives as well.
User
14 years ago
Thank you so much for that information. I will see what I can do to add olives to our garden here.

Did you ever take a look at my photo albums of the gardens surrounding the Villa Borgo Tre Querce in Italy? I was most impressed with the similarity of plants in their garden and those in Mobile. I'' give you the link below to my Webshots albums. Look for the album about Italy. What they do with star jasmine is outstanding!

Here is a link that might be useful: Moccasin's Webshots Albums
raye01
13 years ago
I am also interested in growing an olive tree of the edible variety here in Mobile. Is there a place that sells them in my neck of the woods? Also, do cherry trees of the edible variety grow in Mobile?

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Olive trees

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jim_in_huntsville_al

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