Hi Folks. This forum looks like a great resource! I too, am a newbie olive enthusiast so I thought I'd introduce myself.

My husband and I recently (yesterday!!) bought an olive grove at Heathcote in the Central Region of Victoria, Australia. It has just over 2500 trees between 3 and 5 years old, although a little neglected by the previous owners (who were both over 60) and due to the drought as well, of course. There are a mixture of table and oil olive trees, with the majority being Leccini, Frantoio and Corregiola and the remaining table olives a mixture of 11 varieties! Is it just me, or does that seem somewhat excessive? They are irrigated by bore water but not for the past two seasons (including this year), although they look like they'll have a good amount of fruit coming in at harvest. There is a touch of black scale on some of the trees, and they are in dire need of a vicious pruning, but I think they are beautiful and we're looking forward to the challenge immensely.

Anyway, the whole idea of owning an olive grove started when I decided that I'd had nearly as much as I could stand of living in the city (being from a small country town originally) and that I'd like to move to a farm sometime in the next 5 years. My husband's father was a first generation Italian immigrant, so my husband decided that he wouldn't mind living on a farm if he could get back to his roots and grow olives. So we started reading about them and here we are! I guess it helps that I'm at uni doing Ag Science and have access to a pretty good library.

So the grand plan is to reinvigorate the grove, build a house out there and shift from the city to the country. I have other big plans for our land too, but I think the grove will take up a large amount of time for the moment, so I'll share the more adventurous plans once we're up and running.

Sorry about the essay, but can you tell I'm excited?

The best of luck with your new olive grove.

If you do little pruning and start with the irrigation the plants should be producing fine in a couple of years.

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João Correia
Cascais - Portugal
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msn: jorgegranja@yahoo.co.uk

skype: JoaoJCorreia

Congratulations on your purchase and best of luck on your new venture. It is the best thing to do to move to the country.

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Best regards
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