The time to spray to stop olives

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If you have an olive tree, now (February through March) is the time to have it sprayed to stop it from fruiting. When my trees were smaller, I did it myself, and in later years I hired the son of a friend of mine to get up on the roof and spray the trees. Last season, I failed to do it, and the amount of olives was just terrible! So this year, I marked on my calendar to arrange to get it done at the beginning of February.

This is turning out to be much more difficult than I had imagined. Olive spraying is a specialized business, and there seems to be very few companies here in the Phoenix area that do it. The company that was recommended to me was so overwhelmed that they were unable to keep up with their requests. After several polite inquiries as to when they could do it, I ultimately got an email that said that they had so many other customers they really didn't know. So I tried contacting other olive sprayers by doing a Google search. One company did respond very quickly, even emailed me a contract, which I signed right away, but I have heard nothing more from them about when they plan to do the spraying. I will keep my fingers crossed! Another company called me five days after I had contacted them, really just to say that things were *crazy* and that they were just trying to return phone calls. Again, no exact price, no firm commitment from them.

If I find a company that will spray my olive trees, I will be pleased, and I will recommend them here. So far, it doesn't look good. I won't mention the names of the companies that couldn't help me, but I will let you know if I find a company who can. If you're an olive-spraying company here in Phoenix who is looking for more customers, please contact me and I will promote you here.

Update 2-23-2012 - I sent a gentle *how are you coming along on scheduling my olive tree spraying?* email to the company that I signed the contract with a week ago today. I did get a response right away, but I was left with the feeling that they think that I am in a rush. I am not in a rush, I would just like to know that they are going to be able to do it. I've had all types of repairs done to this house over the years, and everyone else seems to be able to tell me when they can get to my house. I will keep you informed!

Update 2-28-2012 - As February comes to a close, I still really have no idea when or if I will get my trees sprayed. I just re-read the last email that I received from the company that I signed the contract with on February 16th, and it said that they were *trying to get everyone done before the end of March*. Unfortunately, if you wait until the end of March to spray your olive trees, it will be too late. The flowers need to be open to allow the fruit stop to penetrate. After March, the flowers will be already be dropping and the fruit will set, and you will have another season of a huge amount of messy olives dropping everywhere. I now have just a few weeks left before I will need to create a *plan B*, which will mean buying the fruit stop at Home Depot and hiring someone to help me spray.

Update 3-8-12 - Success! The olive-spraying crew just left a little while ago. They were right on time, very courteous, and took special care to protect my garden. The company is Turner Tree Management. Hopefully this will be a whole lot easier next year!

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