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<pre>Hi,
After having lived my entire life in the cool, wet Pacific Northwest area of
the
US and envying people who could grow olive trees, I suddenly find myself living
in
southern California. We have two acres of semi-rural land in San Diego county.
We
would like to plant a small grove of olives on our property. Here are some
questions. I'm sure there are plenty of even more important ones that I haven't
even
thought of yet. If anyone can answer any of them I'd sure appreciate it.

1) Number of trees. How many trees would one need to provide for family needs
and
some to give to friends? Probably 10 gallons per year, maybe somewhat more. We
are
doing this for enjoyment and for the pride of having produced our own olive oil,
not
for the income. But feel free to tell me if this is a totally stupid idea.

2) Spacing of trees. Our land is sloping and has odd lines, house, and other
things
to consider, so the trees will not be planted in a grid. Some will be in
curving
lines or small groups, others in larger groups, but fitted more to the hillside
and
not in straight rows. So how close together can I plant them?

3) Do I need to terrace? How steep of a hill can olive trees grow on? Or maybe
the
trees can grow anywhere, but I would have trouble picking the olives on a steep
slope?

4) How wide do the roots spread? We have a septic tank and drain field. I need
to
know how far to plant the trees from the leech lines.

5) How much water do olive trees need and at what times of the year?

6) What ground cover grows under olive trees? Some trees kill, through shade or
chemistry, other plants attempting to live underneath them. Will other, small
plants
grow under olive trees? We don't like mowed grass, but we may have a serious
erosion
problem if the earth is just left bare.

7) Does anyone in this group live in San Diego County? If so, I'd sure like to
hear
from you. Where do you get your olives pressed? Or are you harvesting yet?
One
supplier in central CA said he's been shipping a lot of olive trees to this area
in
the last few years, so I assume someone is starting to think about this.

Thanks in advance, for any information anyone can give me.

--Brian M. Godfrey
brian@...

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we
do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things
connect.
- Chief Seattle
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<pre>Hi Brian,
Maybe you've already found this resource on the web, but if not, have a
look at http://www.oliveoilsource.com/index.htm
It has great articles on growing and propagating olives, plus links to
olive associations in your area. If the Californian olive associations
are anything like the Australian ones, then going along to your local
association meeting might be the most useful thing to do. There's also a
newsletter that you can subscribe to.
Best wishes,
Margaret Chidgey
Editor, The Olive Press
24 Carcoola Crescent, Normanhurst, NSW 2076
Phone: 02 9489 3663
Fax: 02 9475 0759
email: olivepress@...
http://www.australianolives.com.au


-----Original Message-----
From: Brian M. Godfrey [mailto:brian@...]
Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2003 4:46 PM
To: oliveoil@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [OliveOil] Questions on planting olive trees


Hi,
After having lived my entire life in the cool, wet Pacific Northwest
area of the US and envying people who could grow olive trees, I suddenly
find myself living in southern California. We have two acres of
semi-rural land in San Diego county. We would like to plant a small
grove of olives on our property. Here are some questions. I'm sure
there are plenty of even more important ones that I haven't even thought
of yet. If anyone can answer any of them I'd sure appreciate it.


--Brian M. Godfrey
brian@...

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within
it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound
together. All things connect.
- Chief Seattle




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</pre>
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