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<pre>Adrian,
The olive does not rely on bee activity for polination, preferring to
use the wind. That said, however, bees are active around the trees, but they are
not as important to the olive as they are to the other fruit trees.

I have noticed that some of our cultivars (notably those that "flowered" later)
were severely affected by the hot dry winds we had at the time. The flowers had
just formed buds and were about to open when the winds hit and the flowers ended
up brown and not open at all. Our Kalamata have NO fruit at all! and some of the
other later flowering cvs are likewise devoid of fruit. Bugger!!



Cheers (and all the best to all for the new year)
John Attwood
Tamworth
Northern NSW Au

Adrian Williams wrote:

> Mike,
>
> Our local cherry orchardist claims they have had only 10% of their
> usual fruit
> set this year. They are not sure why that is, but have suggested that
> the bees
> were not as active as they should have been due to unfavourable
> conditions for
> them.
>
> Could this be part of the problem?
>
> Adrian Williams
> Balingup, WA
>
> Mike Wilson wrote:
>
> > > Mike,
> > > Your olive industry levy is working for you!! We just finished a PhD
> > > project supported by AOA funds variously.
> >
> > Just as well I renewed my subscription the other week!
> > >
> > > I don't know if you got to the olive conf. in Adelaide or not but
> I think
> > > that report may have been presented by our group. I was away in NZ
> and did
> > > not go.
> > >
> > > No matter. I dont have the info you want to hand right now and I don't
> > > know which parts of it are yet public so I will need to check. I
> presume
> > > that you have ordered the trees anyway? If you have then I would
> like to
> > > defer a reply to you until after Xmas. Is that possible? No time
> before
> > for
> > > me. I'm setting up next years courses, bookings and printing, etc.
> > >
> >
> > No problem. I haven't ordered yet.
> >
> > > That would also give me time to get right what I think is the
> case. The
> > > bits that are embargoed are not that important but will be thus so
> that we
> > > (or AOA) do not release info that MIGHT be wrong because we have
> not done
> > > sufficient testing. We have got caught (internally) by thinking that a
> > > couple of years data was giving a good picture on a few things. Not
> > > serious, but it makes us very, very cautious. Its your money, not
> mine.
> >
> > That's no problem at all. We will be planting in batches of a couple of
> > thousand over three years, so there is plenty of time to change
> direction
> > before the final lot go in.
> >
> > >
> > > Could I ask where you got your trees from and where you will be
> getting
> > > the new ones from? Useful so I can compare what the seller thought
> it was
> > > versus what we think it is (both may be wrong!). That would help
> with the
> > > x-poll suggestions to you.
> > >
> >
> > The previous trees, the ones that are not performing as well as I hoped,
> > mainly came from Olives Australia, although we did source some
> locally from
> > a small local nursery (since closed down) but I believe they took their
> > cuttings from trees originally supplied by Olives Australia. There
> may be
> > other factors at work too, as we have had poor fruit set right
> across the
> > valley, even in groves that have self-fertile Manzanillo, or a good
> mixture
> > of varieties. I'm just trying to cover all bases.
> >
> > As for new ones, well we are open to offers!
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Mike.
> >
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