Olive harvest 2015

[LandyAndy]

Just spent fri arvo,sat and sunday picking our olives.Its a slow job but quite enjoyable.The olives were smaller this year as I didnt water them during summer,there were lots more than last year.
They are off to Perth in the morning to get crushed.Hoping for 10 to 15 litres of exta virgin olive oil;);););)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/753.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/001_zpswwwbupqd.jpg.html)
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

Got my oil back.
There were 90kg of olives.Ended up with 19l extra virgin olive oil.Cost $39.00 to get them processed:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
Andrew

[DoubleChevron]

That's the way to do it ... yourself for fun. My sister inlaw has several hundred trees... They have to hire pickers, pay exorbitant processing costs .... To end up with hundreds of litres of oil they struggle to sell even at very cheap prices as there is so much competition. I reckon it would have cost them tens of thousands of dollars over the last 5'ish years to pick and process them ( I'd burn the bloody trees and rid myself of the nightmare of costs and upkeep).

seeya,
Shane L.

[Saitch]

Andy
How many trees do you have & do the smaller fruit give a better oil. We have a couple of 4 y.o. experimental trees which haven't fruited yet & we've often wondered how much water they need?
Steve

[daf11e]

Andy, do the olives vary much season to season with regard to yield ....not so much in quantity but quality?

[LandyAndy]

Andy
How many trees do you have & do the smaller fruit give a better oil. We have a couple of 4 y.o. experimental trees which haven't fruited yet & we've often wondered how much water they need?
Steve

We have 12 trees that are producing,1 is too young,they are about 8 years old.
I watered and fed them religiously until last year,this is the first summer they havent been watered regularly.The only watering was when we went away for a week after new year as I ran the retic.
The trick with watering I believe is water/feed them well late winter and they think they are going to have a good season and set more fruit,perhaps treat yours kindly this winter and see how the flower in spring.
The trees are droughtproof once established,the fruiting is all that will suffer.
Yet to taste this oil,they were also picked a month later as my mate that does the town run to the presser was overseas.He thinks the oil should be better seeing they are older.The smaller olives went higher oil content this year 21%,probably due to the lack of summer water.Mine are Kalamata olives,which is a pickling variety,in the past my oil has been around 18% wich is still good for a pickling variety.13% is the norm.
You should get enough to pickle off your trees the first time around.We didnt do any this year,we have cupboards full of them,2 to 3 years in brine makes a tasty olive;);););)
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

Andy, do the olives vary much season to season with regard to yield ....not so much in quantity but quality?

They do.But its quantity,quality should remain constant if the water and feed remains the same,they rest every second year,ie dont flower as much.the olives tend to be bigger in the rest year as there are less to grow out.
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

That's the way to do it ... yourself for fun. My sister inlaw has several hundred trees... They have to hire pickers, pay exorbitant processing costs .... To end up with hundreds of litres of oil they struggle to sell even at very cheap prices as there is so much competition. I reckon it would have cost them tens of thousands of dollars over the last 5'ish years to pick and process them ( I'd burn the bloody trees and rid myself of the nightmare of costs and upkeep).

seeya,
Shane L.

Our block is narrow but deep(25m x 75m).Nobody uses their rear of block around us,fences are sheep wire.
We wanted trees that were usable,evergreen and easy care,mainly to provide a screen from the neighbors.Olives were the answer,and we planted them close to form almost a hedge.The have only had minor pruning to date,however they are now in need of a major prune as they are getting too tall and overgrown,makes picking hard.Looking for a decent mulcher so I can use the prunings rather than dispose of them.
Andrew

[DoubleChevron]

Our block is narrow but deep(25m x 75m).Nobody uses their rear of block around us,fences are sheep wire.
We wanted trees that were usable,evergreen and easy care,mainly to provide a screen from the neighbors.Olives were the answer,and we planted them close to form almost a hedge.The have only had minor pruning to date,however they are now in need of a major prune as they are getting too tall and overgrown,makes picking hard.Looking for a decent mulcher so I can use the prunings rather than dispose of them.
Andrew

I see a bonfire coming up :) The only mulcher I'd bother with is a huge industrial one you tow on a trailer. Even the biggest portable one are hopeless for anything other than small cuttings from a suburban back yard. You sound like your on acerage ..... Give it a crack though, I'd suggest hiring the biggest meanest mulcher you can find to see for yourself how slow and tedious they are :)

The olive grove they have ? I rekcon it was cover for growing, er, "pretty flowers" by the people that built there house. You see there hay shed has a hard to see "built on bit" at the back with a wall you need to open as a door, in here is many power points, floor drains and lighting all setup ............. No guesses what that was used for :wasntme:

seeya,
shane L.

[loanrangie]

Andy, how about a pic or 2 of the tree's.

[LandyAndy]

Andy, how about a pic or 2 of the tree's.

Will see what I can do.
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

Pics as promised.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/553.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/001_zpsgr3hctvh.jpg.html)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/554.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/002_zpsjeodg8fr.jpg.html)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/555.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/003_zpsudboqcux.jpg.html)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/556.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/004_zpsbottgso4.jpg.html)

I bought a secondhand mulcher today.Its about as big as you can buy before going to a commercial trailer mounted,WA made too.It was expensive,cost the previous owner $5000 18months ago.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/557.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/001_zps85dogjgi.jpg.html)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/06/558.jpg (http://s113.photobucket.com/user/LandyAndy_2006/media/002_zpsvm2tjll1.jpg.html)

Andrew

[loanrangie]

Thanks mate, its something i would like to at my parents place.
They are on 5 acres with most of it going spare so i reckon i could throw a few trees on there.

What do they do with the olive pulp after pressing, i guess its only really good as fertiliser ?

[LandyAndy]

You can see how well the hedging effect works and its also providing oil and olives for pickling,well worth doing.
There are 3 olive trees to the right of the chook house and to the left of "Mal" the other lone olive tree.Old Mal,an old greek itenerant we helped out because he had a Land Rover broken down in town.Mal gave us his olive tree he was carting around,hence calling it Mal.He experiminted on the other 3 trees which were seedlings from ours with grafts.He killed 1,1 graft looks like its taken,the 3rd next to Mal is looking like seed stock still.We will pull that one,leave the one where his graft looks like working,he told us it was a mammoth olive,the samples he had were HUGE!!! and replace the dead one.Need to fill that space so we cant see the neighbors block.
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

Thanks mate, its something i would like to at my parents place.
They are on 5 acres with most of it going spare so i reckon i could throw a few trees on there.

What do they do with the olive pulp after pressing, i guess its only really good as fertiliser ?

Where we go,we only get the extra virgin,ie first press.
Pretty sure he runs everyones pressings back thru the mill,as there is still oil in the pulp not extractable in the first go,his win.Everyoune else over here has a $100 min charge,so no complaints there.
He has padocks full of olive trees,he uses the leftovers as fertilizer as you suggest.
You can use the byproducts for soap/hair treatments etc.
Andrew

[Don 130]

You don't need to pull the one that's reverted to rootstock. You or someone else can graft or bud it over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s60kdZP6H64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZTzXj4DkbM
Don.

[LandyAndy]

If you do go planting at your parents,make sure you go the way we have,plant a good pickling olive(ours were giant kalamata,from an olive tree producer).You can get oil from pickling olives,but you cant get pickling olives from oil olives;););););)
If you like olives you will enjoy pickling too;););););)
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

You don't need to pull the one that's reverted to rootstock. You or someone else can graft or bud it over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s60kdZP6H64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZTzXj4DkbM
Don.

Thanks Don.
Mal has tried grafting the 3 trees over 3 years,his parents used to grow olives in greece,Mal is old,so they would be ancient:D
:D:D:D:D.I think he was working on childhood memories as he came to awestralia as a teenager.
Because Mal has stuffed around and failed the 2 remaining are shooting wild an suckering too,willing to try and get his viable graft to go,will replace the others with grafted trees.It didnt revert to rootstock,the 3 trees were seedlings from ours planted to try grafting,Mal the mad greek just happened to come along.He rang me last week,tells me he is coming back to Williams again.
Andrew