Olive Trees?

[Lesley81]

Hi All,

Has anyone ever had any success with germinating an Olive Pit?

I purchased some last year, and followed the instructions to the letter, but never had any success. I now have some more, which are untreated olive pits straight from a tree (well fallen from a tree), and I would really love to get them going.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Snoop Puss]

Your best bet is to cut any suckers growing from the base of the tree the olives fell from and get those rooted and growing. That's how it's done here. Either that or the farmers buy in grafted trees. Anyway, growing the suckers would be a lot quicker and likely more successful that growing from pits. Even though I live in an olive-growing area, I can't give you any tips because nobody here would try it.

I don't know where you live. If you're in France or somewhere like here in Spain, olive trees might be extremely cheap to buy. You can get bare-rooted two-year-old trees for four euros here. Which might explain why the locals don't try growing from pits, I guess.

Good luck, whatever you do.

[KevinM67]

A bit of information on growing them from seed/pit here:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edi...olive-pits.htm

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

I grew one,

well I didn't really!

I have a little resident squirrel which is always visiting my back yard which is full of pots of all kinds of plants, he digs about burying allsorts of stuff for him to come back to when he's hungry!

Which sometimes nice and other times annoying!

And he planted this for me last year at the side of my Tree Fern!



Still not potted it on yet, but will do once the weather starts to warm, as too for "Stumpy" my "Tree Fern"

But just goes to show, it is possible!

And if a squirrel can do it I am sure you can!

[Snoop Puss]

^Tree ferns and olive trees in West Yorkshire? Sunshinier even than VC's patch of Wales, by the look of it.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Here! We do get sunshine! We have TV's too!

Edit to add! I wouldn't know how to turn it on as I have not watched one in years!

[Snoop Puss]

Never occurred to me you wouldn't have tellies in West Yorkshire. What surprised me was that the days are long enough and sunny enough for olive trees to grow there. Do you know what variety the parent tree was?

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Ain't a "Scooby Doo" Snoop!

I didn't plant it, the squirrel did and although a very friendly little chappie, were not on speaking terms yet!

But if it fruits I'll be more than happy!

Oh! Read a very interesting article yesterday!

The only difference between green n purple olives is that the green one's are unripe fruit whereas the purple are mature fruits!

Never new that!

You learn something new everyday as they say!

[veggiechicken]

I thought the squirrel had planted the car Deano, I didn't even notice the olive.
Here in sunshiny South Wales I have an olive tree in the front garden. Had it from freecycle about 10 years ago when it was about to outgrow its pot at about 3' tall. Its at least 8' now and has had a few puny little olives. I wouldn't grow one in the hope of fruit, just as an interesting garden feature and talking piece!

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Here! I'm not expecting much VC!

But anything's a bonus!

[boatsman]

Here tinned olives, or those sold by weight, the black (fully ripe) olives are much more expensive than the green ones. I prefer the black ones on pizza, I think they have more taste.

[Lesley81]

I grew one,

well I didn't really!

I have a little resident squirrel which is always visiting my back yard which is full of pots of all kinds of plants, he digs about burying allsorts of stuff for him to come back to when he's hungry!

Which sometimes nice and other times annoying!

And he planted this for me last year at the side of my Tree Fern!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]78586[/ATTACH]

Still not potted it on yet, but will do once the weather starts to warm, as too for "Stumpy" my "Tree Fern"

But just goes to show, it is possible!

And if a squirrel can do it I am sure you can!

That's brilliant & well done to the squirrel 😄. Maybe there is hope for me.

I will have to sort out my pits and see what happens.

I already have three olive trees in the garden, one of which tried to grow a few fruits last summer, but they never amounted to much.
Maybe this year?!?!