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Olive tree

suz.bowerssuz.bowers Posts: 4
in Plants
I purchased in May and from my picture can you tell me if these are flower buds or olives forming?
I’m hoping it may have flowered before I purchased and these are olives. Thank you. 

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,293
    They are the flower buds.
    Mine look the same. The olives appear once the flowers have been pollinated and drop off.
    I usually get about 2 olives from each flower sprig - mine don't get very big though, but I don't take very good care of my tree...
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • suz.bowerssuz.bowers Posts: 4
    Pete.8 said:
    They are the flower buds.
    Mine look the same. The olives appear once the flowers have been pollinated and drop off.
    I usually get about 2 olives from each flower sprig - mine don't get very big though, but I don't take very good care of my tree...

    Ah, thanks Pete. Thought I was going to have a harvest! 

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,293
    edited June 2020
    You may well do, they ripen later in the year.
    Mine is in a big pot and I'm not very good at remembering to water it - I get about 10 olives a year, so I've not invested in a press :)

    A feed of seaweed extract about once a month during the growing season helps keep them in good health.

    Welcome to the forum btw:)

    Flowers just opening on mine-

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • suz.bowerssuz.bowers Posts: 4
    The flowers are lovely, thanks for pic. Yes, I was told to feed with seaweed extract and I repotted to a big pot when I got it. I’m in South Devon, we have a south facing garden so it’s in full sun and a wall behind pot. Looks Mediterranean despite torrential rain today! 
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,323
    Worth mentioning that ripe olives are not edible until they have been brined for a few weeks...just in case you get a bumper crop. We used to get a very good crop every other year from our Kalamata tree back in Greece...but had to live around buckets of brine for a few weeks 😂
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • suz.bowerssuz.bowers Posts: 4
    Thank you for that. Bit like a peach espalier we used to have....fruit like bullets! Really not meant for our climate. 🤪
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,283
    That reminds me of a friend of mine, a city boy who had probably never seen a sheep in his life. It was back in the mid 1960s and, adventurously for the time, went backpacking in Greece. He’d heard of olives, had seen photos but had certainly never eaten one. Finding himself in an olive grove he thought he’d try one as they were strewn across the ground. He spat it out in disgust - it was a rabbit dropping!
    Rutland, England
  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 982
    😁
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,323
    Ewwwww @BenCotto that thought him quickly what olives look like 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
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