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.

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

Well, I pretty much have an answer. OBL, Francee, Elegans and Paradigm had drainage problems and were rotting. It looked just like what was bothering u. albomarginata. OBL and Elegans were 2013 aquisitions. I don't have a record of the potting soil I was using. It might have still be the homemade disaster. I think I up potted Francee and Paradigm in 2013. I believe I got Fragrant Dream that year, too, so I'll have to check that one, too. I hosed off the roots and bleached the above. I down potted them all in new soil. I'm pretty sure that Francee and Paradigm will do fine. We'll see about Elegans and OBL. They looked as good as the Francee and Paradigm, but I'm not sure they are as hardy here as the others. There was nothing wrong with Brother Stephan. I guess it just doesn't like Texas. I'm beginning to think Olga's hosta don't like Texas. I'm 0 for three on getting a nice Olga to grow. That might be a hint from above (or Florida) to buy more Lakesides. On the bright side, I had to up pot Stained Glass and Old Glory as they are growing gangbusters. I still have lots of work to do. I'm going to have to check nearly everything. Plus, I still don't have the shade structure built. So many jobs, so little time. Here's what I saw:This is OBL. Many of the roots were rotted. The plant was attempting to put out new roots at the soil level (good survival strategy). ] This is Paradigm. The end of the roots were all rotted. I have no idea if this is a named disease or not. It's not Southern Blight, as there are not little yellow balls. As far as I know, it's just plain ol' root rot. bk

Hi Everyone, I have a 3+ year old Arbequina olive that I planted in the ground this Spring. It has been producing growth fairly well, however I have noticed issues with newer leaves and some mature leaves: Any ideas on what could be causing the damage? I have Neem oil, but am not sure if it will harm the tree or if it would even help. Thanks for your time! -Kelley 8a