Grafting onto Olive trees

[Zenithtb]

To Liza; Mmmm..... Pickled olives... I wonder if it tastes as good as it sounds! Joking!
To Snohare; Wow, what a detailed reply....!

Mmm yeah. See your point, to a certain point. About the microclimate, I don't think the Air would be changed much (see video above) as I believe the trees are too far apart for them to affect their surroundings too much. About the water, you may have a point (if I understood you correctly). So now I am not sure if leaving a couple of olives in to 'bring up' deep water would not be a good idea. It seems very counter-intuitive though - they use water, and I need that water...

Water though is not such a problem as it seems. The house has two large (and I mean Large!) water storage tanks, and one of my Jobs for this year would be to add more fed off the garage roof, just for watering my plants during the dry season. I don't think they'd need too much water after year two. Also I have seen many of the trees I want growing wild (nispero, pomegranate, apricot, plum etc). If they can survive with NO help, I should be able to do it WITH help... Although it may come down to micro-climate as you suggest though; our house would be higher in the mountain than I've seen those previously mentioned trees...

So, grafting Better Olive onto the Olives suggestion will be gleefully ignored. Mainly 'cos I don't want olives ;-)

Leaving some and removing others may be a possibility. I think I have the space for that.

Selling them sounds like a much better idea - anyone know anywhere that'll come round to your place 'n' dig 'em up and pay? :-) In all seriousness I may have seen such a place while walking the dogs once - they had big olive trees like mine, sans pot, which DID look like they'd been dug out of the ground. AND they were alive :-)

Get trees I want and fill with Good Stuff and a load of water - best plan of all...

Sooo.... Back to square one - dunno what to do. In other news, I had an attempt of Budding a almond bud onto a peach tree today. With none of the correct tools - of course (electricians tape :-) )... Be interesting to see how that turns out lol!

Typed too much. Hope some of this made sense, however I've just woken up from a 3 hour Siesta - ha-ha!

Zenithtb

[TonyF]

I live not that far over the boder in France and we're not allowed to import olive trees from Spain, last year I was told by my local tree man that Spain had placed an embargo on them being exported.

I'd ask in the municipality whether your olive trees are so old they're protected before you grub them out or whether there's any restrictions on what you do with them.

FWIW, my understanding from my French tree books is that you can't graft onto olive root stock.

[frias]

I think your best bet is selling them to a garden centre. Old olive trees sell for a lot. We have a small finca in Catalunya. About 100 olive trees. They are all grafted but not sure what root stock is used. I am quite good at pickling olives now but can only bring them and the olive oil home to England if travelling by car. My Spanish neighbour makes wonderful soap from the olive oil but she's not taught me how to do that yet.
We also have Almonds and Nisporo and they all seem to live quite happily without water. I put 2 lemon trees in but as I'm not there in the summer they aren't doing very well. In fact I have several here in England and they are doing much better.

[Zenithtb]

TonyF; I wouldn't want to make waves in case you're correct :| My advantage is that they don't exist - the plots are marked down as almond orchards, yet no almond trees exist. Strangely, no other trees are there either - just empty plots. Strange...

Frias; should some trees magically appear overnight, you are probably right. Olive trees only 10-20 years old are in the garden centres for over 60€, so if nothing else these magic trees may be taken away for nothing. This would save me the cost of hiring heavy machinary, and would mean they'd go on to live a happy life somewhere else with someone who would love them more than I do. The plots would be empty (as they are now... lalala) and I could plant my happy trees.

The problem with olives is they 'do' nothing. You can't eat them (normally), you can't bake them in pies, they'd just ripen, fall on the floor and make a mess... Better that more productive (for me) crops are grown there..

[Liza]

I hope Carol Drinkwater isn't following this thread !

[frias]

I can't agree that olives do nothing since I have litres of beautiful olive oil. My neighbour has to take them to the local co-operative with his as I am not licenced to sell. Strangley I can take my carob and almonds though. I love olives to eat, not raw never try that. Well if you do you'll only do it once as the foul taste will stay in your mouth for a long time. The olives seem happy to grow without water and in awful weather conditions which suits us as we are hardly ever there to look after them. My neighbour sprays and prunes for me. The almonds don't do so well and many Spanish people are replacing them for olives or if they have water, oranges.
Catalunya is very windy. You are a little further south and as you have water should be able to grow anything you desire.

[Zenithtb]

Liza; I had to Google that one, but I see your point lol!

Frias; I meant that olives don't / wouldn't do anything for ME. It's easy to buy oil in the shops, but hard to make it. It's hard to buy (and expensive) pomegranates, but easy to pick... It's simply about using the land we'd have to the best advantage. As I know I'm too lazy to pick the olives, transport them somewhere, pay to have them pressed (what there would be of them) only to get 3L olive oil (however good the quality)... I'd prefer, for me, apples, pears, plums etc which could be eaten raw, made into jam, or a lovely pie! :-)

And no - no one else would pick the olives for me etc - 3 people live within 10-15km of the house ;-)

Zenithtb

[frias]

I do understand Zenithtb. I love the olive trees but they also suit us as we have been unable to spend much time in Spain lately so unable to look after much else. We don't have anyone living within about 10 kms in Spain either as also half way up a mountain. No electric or mains water although we have balsa and cisterna. When I say neighbours I mean the owners of all the land around us which is tended most days. The farmers don't actually live on their land as it's rural but live in the village. It's only the mad English who actually sleep in the middle of no-where!
I raised pomegranite from seed here in England but although have had flowers, no fruit. Is there a local co-operative near you where the locals take their olives? Ours sell fruit trees very cheaply. About 3 euros for orange or lemon trees. Not sure about other fruit trees as never in Spain at the right time for planting. Do you have Aldi or Lidl within a decent distance? They have just had fruit trees on offer here very cheaply and often have similar offers in Spain. You can see the offers on line.