Olives and Citrus fruits

My Olive and Citrus trees have loads of tiny fruit - do I leave them on and they get bigger and ripen next year, or do I take them off as they should have ripened this year? :confused: :confused:

Thanks

 

I'd leave them on HB, cant hurt and they might just grow on through the winter and ripen in the new year. I presume they are in the greenhouse, some citrus ripen as the temperatures fall.

 

I'd love to give advice, Honey Bee, but my situation is SOOOOOO different!

If they are in a greenhouse I think you have different options to being outdoors! Perhaps one of our "Med guys" can advise you on this.

I'll follow the thread! Good luck!

 

HB - Olives are ripe when they turn purple to black. In Greece harvest starts in November and can continue until March. Given your location in the sunny south I'd be tempted to leave the olives on until they turn colour.

Can't comment about the citrus though.

(despite lots of early blossom we've only got a measly 3 olives this year!)

 

THREE OLIVES, Dave? I certainly hope you won't eat them all at once ? .. and for heaven's sake if Mrs DavW wants one! :eek:

Shall I post you the hoarde of horrible small black ones on the tree next to our kitchen? Not ours but they are not picked. To be honest, they are like our almonds ... bitter ... horrors .. :eek:

 

Can you eat green olives from the tree? Someone told me that they have to be soaked in some chemical to make them edible. I've got 1 olive on my tree - woohoo :D

 

Hi Pete

The citrus trees will go back into the greenhouse soon - the Olive had stayed out since we got it - I could put it in the greenhouse.....

Sparkle - woohoo!!!! bit like mine last year!!!!

Dave W - nothing wrong with a good old fight!!! just so long as you make sure Mrs W wins!!!!

LOL - you probably think of Olives as pests over there..... no novelty factor!!! But I was looking forward to sitting on our (NEW!!!) patio with a martini and just leaning over and popping one in the glass!!! :D :D

 

DaveW, good idea with the three! :D Hate to tell you but there are green and black olives ... the green ones never turn colour. Our friend has these and they are huge, fat and juicy, about the size of cherries!

Sparkle, bet you're jealous of DaveW and his three!

Harvesting time is commencing here now and here are some tips ....

http://portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?s=VEGE

Sounds lovely, Honey Bee .... have you got one to lean over, pluck and pop in your glass? :D :D I like green stuffed ones ... here they come stuffed with pimentas, garlic and even almond!

 

HB your Citrus will drop any fruit that they can't cope with, so thinning is rarely necessary. Generally the problem is to persuade them to hold on to what they've got - especially when the fruits are small at this time of year. I have half standard Valencia orange that always sets very well, but only carries a dozen or so to maturity.

I was looking at my Limequat (Kumquat crossed with Key Lime)this morning. A month ago every flower from a late flowering appeared to have 'set', but now only one remains per cluster. Still, there's a good amount from an earlier flowering that are nearly ready and these younger fruits will ripen gradually over the next few months.

 

I had a clementine that cropped really well planted in the greenhouse border, but it grew too big, and pruning it only made it produce strong non flowering growth, so eventually I got rid of it.
I've NEVER had any sucsess with pot grown citrus, and its always something I would like to achieve.
Mine always lose most of their leaves in the winter, and take ages to recover the following spring. I've tried lemons, oranges and the clementines.
The only ones that look good are the seed grown ones and they dont fruit.

 

You could try Sparkle, but it won't taste nice!
The usual procedure is to pack them in salt for a while. They can then either be left as olives in brine or repacked in olive oil.

 

DaveW, did you read the article I posted above?

 

Yes - thanks. Interesting stuff too.

 

So you see there's big, fat, juicy green olives?