The two things you need to do for your olive tree - trim and spray

-

I'm fortunate to have two olive trees on my property, which were planted by the previous owner in the late 1980s. When I first bought my house, in 1993, they were fairly small, but now they're big enough to soar above the house, giving nice shade.

But there are two things that you need to do to make these trees as beautiful as possible. You need to spray them every February to stop the olives from forming, and you need to trim them. When my trees were small I could do this myself, but now I need professional help.

Olive trees, like all desert trees, aren't really trees at all. They're just big bushes that are trained up to look like trees. Left alone, they'll be bushy and full and grow low to the ground. In fact, leaves of olive trees are continuously growing from the base, and the truck (so I snip them off regularly). And left alone, they can look pretty ratty. So making them beautiful takes some effort.

I don't have the landscape guys come in on a regular schedule, I just call them when I think the tree needs it. And wow, what an effect it gives! Now that the tree is taller than my house, it kinda "flies" over it. The lower branches are cleaned up, to allow airflow, and the tree becomes an umbrella shape, giving that delicious shade in the summer, which really makes the garden below possible. I have no idea how much money the shade from the trees saves me in air conditioning bills, but I'm sure it's considerable.

Unfortunately, my olive tree is old enough that it couldn't possibly be fruitless. When you go get one now you can choose fruitless (like seedless watermelons, etc.) but mine wants to make olives. Lots of them. I accidentally forgot to spray one year and I got a bumper crop of messy olives. So the landscaping guys come out every spring and spray. The trees are sizable now so it's more than I can do, and they have the right equipment to do it. And it makes a difference - no olives!

I like trees. And my house, and garden, wouldn't be the same without them. They will get the care that they need.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do
Read more

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I
Read more