- As a matter of curiosity can you let me know what is live span of olive
trees and how long they can produce olives ?
- Theoretically olive trees are immortal. There are many
millenary olive trees in Spain, North Africa (Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon,
Syria) and South Italy planted by Romans. They are still alive. The
situation is different in the rest of the world where the weather is colder.
As you know, once or twice a century, we must register a weather
disaster. In these circumstances olive trees look completely frozen
but they grew as new scions from the roots which did not die at all. They are
still producing fruits.
- At what time of year is it best to prune and how long
do the branches need to be before they need pruning.
- We use to
prune our trees every year on March/April period. The pruning idea is to open
it to let the sun well lights the fruits and the foliage inside and to reduce
the height of the tree to get picking operation more easy. It's very
important to choose the ideal main branches to preserve; the lenght of the
branches to cut is not important, sometimes they are the biggest ones
!
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- A friend of the family has a share in an Olive Grove in Turkey
and they are having a few problems. I believe that the trees have stopped
producing olives over the passed couple of years, I think that the keepers
of the olive grove are neglecting the olive trees through not pruning them
every year but im not sure.
- Alternate
bearing is a phenomenon that occurs with most fruit trees. A simple
explanation is that while the tree is bearing fruit all resources are being
directed to that function and less are directed to the production of new wood
that will provide fruit the next season. The converse occurs in the next
season because of the light fruit load the tree produces more new wood and
hence a large crop will follow. In othe words, heavy crops are often
followed by lighter ones. In Umbria we have not such problems because we never
have heavy crops. In you case, I suppose (I don't exclude) that the
trees probably stopped producing olives because of:
1) the olive grower did
not prune trees each years;
2) as far as I know in Turkey the harvest is very
often effected knocking the branches with long poles of wood.
The method is not recommended as both the olives- with
consequent oil production of very bad quality- and the branches are damaged.
For sure it causes alternate or biennial bearing.
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- How much olive can you harvest per tree ? ( Approximately )
- On yearly normal weather conditions
an olive tree should produce approximately 12/14 olives kilos, it means about
2 oil liters. Anyway to calculate how much litres of oil can be harvested per
tree there are certain things you should bear in mind. Variety, age, distance
from processor, ability to be hand or machine harvested etc. But today we had
care of many different (age e cultivar) trees and most of them produced from
14 to 20 kilos, some less (from 5 to 10), the oldest one produced more than 60
kilos. In Umbria a new (14/15 years old) olive orchard produces, on
average, a liter of oil for tree.
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-
What then is the yield of oil per the weight of olives
collected?
-
When you consult books yeld is generally estimated in 20/24 % but it very
seldom happens
-
I saw in the Greek/Italian suburban gardens mature
olive trees which had their trunks painted in what appeared to be a white lime
wash, presumably as some pest management. I have also seen this in parts of
Europe. Can you tell me what this mixture is and from what is it protecting the
tree?
- Some farmers probably use lime to prevent
bacterium
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- I would like to know if there is a fragrance to the
olive groves, either of the olives themselves or of the leaves.
-
I'm sorry but there is no fragrance to the olive groves,
either of the olives themselves or of the the leaves or of the flowers. By
the way, strange but true: many people never saw olive tree flowers. It happens on
may and ...what a sight ! I got some pictures with my digital cam using
macro.
Anyway at harvesting time (from November to January in
Italy, from October in Egypt) the air becomes impregnated of the fragrance of
the olive oil, a strong, pleasint, sweet and acrid smell. To have a better
idea you should pour some oil in a pan and inhale deeply to notice the
intensity of its bouquet.
In the same
period a strong acrid smell expands everywhere from pomace (sansa) e from
vegetable waters near the mills.
- I would like to know how much water a mature olive tree needs per
day.
- A mature olive tree has
developed enough its roots and get by itself the water it need even in the dry
lands. Just by the humidity of the air or by the night frost. You can see very
healthy olive trees in many areas of Spain, Italy and north Africa. They grow
without watering and fruit well.
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- Trying to find out percentage of water to oil in
olives?
Here is the answer to your question:
- pomace 45%
- oil
15%
- water 40%
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- A test (gone on for ten years) was made in the States on 5.000 people 65/85
years old. After this period their state of health was checked. Here are the
results:
people who daily used from 30 to 140 olive oil grams were healthier
than people who used none. Their minds resulted such lucid minds to consent the
following affirmation: "olive oil perfectly lubricated their meninx !" .
Use of
olive oil seems to prevent coronary thrombosis; relaxes, keeps memory alived
and so on....
Quoted from
La Nazione, on 6/7/2001.
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-
A friend
of mine told me that she buys only organic olive oil
because she is afraid of eating pesticides. I told
her that there are not many pesticides used on olives
in general because they grow in such a dry climate
where pests don't grow easily. So she needn't worry
about eating non-organic olive oil.
- It should be so. But you know, as business is
business, many farmers use chemical herbicides and fertilizers; they are
cheaper than organic ones and easier to work. Moreover many farmers use
various phisical and chemicals aids to increase the efficiency of olive oil
extraction.
-
My mother-in-law last year brought back 2 olive plants from a holiday
in Italy.One she kept and the other gave to me. Mine came
with around 5 olives already on it. We repotted it and over the
winter kept it indoors and this summer put it outside. It looks
very healthy, has grown around 40 cms but it never produced any
fruit. I can't seem to find and reference as to why there is no
fruit. Do you need more than 1 tree to cross-fertilize?
- it often happens that when you buy
an olive tree it has some fruits on even if it is 1 or 2 years old. It is a
good sign. But always happens that no fruits are in the following years. Why
? When the tree was in the nursery it had special fertilizers you don't
have; when it was in the nursery there were hundred/thousand pollinators
you don't have; they need time to acclimatize to a different atmosphere.
So I think it's just a matter of time.
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-
I have two
olive plants and I have'nt planted them outside yet as I am in a flat. Will be moving
to a house with a garden in october and would like to know if I can keep them in pots.
The frost sets in, should I bring them inside?
- Olive tree can easily leave in a pot instead
of being transplante. It's a very resistent to frost (until 10°Celsius)
so you don't necessarly need to bring it inside.
Anyway I suggest you to transplante them in a bigger
pot with all its original earth to consent a good developing of
their roots.
...... to be continued