Would it be possible to grow olive trees in Ireland?

Just saw your enquiry regarding growing olives in Ireland. Why not? You will
stand more chance of succeeding if you start with a mature tree[15 yrs or
so] if it is to be outdoors in winter. South facing wall would be
recommended. Where in Ireland are you and how much frost do you have? If
frost, you will need to wrap the trunk with agricultural fleece in winter to
prevent the frost cracking the bark. Here in Sussex we are presently
watching very small, immature olives[variety, pendolino] swell and hope
there will be enough sunshine to complete the ripening process. Good luck.
Edward Faridany

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<pre>We grow olives in central Italy. I don't know the latitude but it
is not important as there are many olives grown further north in the much
milder climate of Liguria and a similar latitude in the Balkans would be
much too cold for olives. We are at 550 m altitude. Snow is not a problem.
We have snow every year. Usually only 5 to 10 cm two or three times between
Dec and April but we had 85 cm in 1996 into 1997 and it even snowed during
harvest last year in Nov.
We fear the Tramontana which is the cold wind from Siberia. This
does real damage to the olives.

You already know from the technical literature that -4°C is the
cold boundary according to the experts but we have found that the classic
Umbrian and Tuscany varieties are more tolerant than this in the dormant
period of mid winter. There is little damage before -7° or -8°. In spring
-4° will do a lot of damage.
Time of exposure is also important. Our last bad frost was 1996
when it was below -2° for two days including some long periods at -8°. We
lost half of our young trees (two, three and four years old). Some older
trees lost all their leaves, some the leaves and young wood some had no
damage.

Leccino is the most resistant of the classic varieties and there
are some selections such as Minerva even more frost resistant. Moraiolo is
not bad either but it is the usual balance between quality and resistance.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
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