Can you grow olives in the uk

A pot grown tree can easily become waterlogged so should stand on pot feet to allow water to drain away. It can also more rapidly parch in hot weather, especially when in a terracotta pot, so will require a more careful watering routine than a tree planted in the ground. An application of liquid fertiliser every month from early spring to mid-August will encourage healthy growth and a good crop of fruit. Pinching out the tips of young shoots will encourage them to develop a branching shape.

Olive trees are hardy but may require some winter protection for the first few years. In heavy snow or particularly severe winter weather even established trees may be damaged but are easily protected with a wrap of hessian or fleece. Trees should begin producing fruit at about three to five years old. It will grow throughout the summer and autumn and ripen in mid-winter.

The olives may be picked when green but are fully ripe when they turn black and begin to drop from the branches. Immerse your olives in cold water, changing the water each day for ten days.

This will remove the bitter taste of the raw olives. Make a brine by heating water and stirring in salt. Once the egg floats on the surface your brine is strong enough.

Olive trees are slow growing and do not need much pruning other than to keep to the desired size and shape. Prune in late spring to mid-summer, to remove dead, diseased or dying branches. Thin branches to allow more light into the centre. Although evergreen, olives do shed leaves, mostly in late spring as older leaves make way for new growth.

Your olive tree may never fruit, but if it does it will take at least four years for the tree to be mature enough. Harvest the olives in late autumn.

They are extremely bitter to taste. To make them palatable, soak them in a brine solution for up to six weeks you will need to change the water regularly. This can cause damage to the foliage and bark. However, plants should recover, although they might suffer in terms of fruit production the following season. Extreme wet can cause leaves to drop and may weaken the tree.

This can allow other diseases, such as verticillium wilt or phytopthora root rot, to take hold. Olive scab is a fungal disease that causes spots on the leaves, excessive loss of foliage and poor fruit production. Olive trees can be propagated by taking semi-ripe cuttings in summer or hardwood cuttings in winter. Low-maintenance creeping, hardy carpet Phlox is ideal for colourful, spring ground cover.

This charming hardy climber creates a canopy of glossy green foliage, which in summer is strewn with flat white panicles of flowers on long stems.

The Arbequina is ideal as it flowers and fruits early in the season, giving your olives a longer period to ripen on the branch. Feed — olive trees absolutely love seaweed, so feed your plants regularly throughout the growing season, which will be May to September.

Water- the more you hydrate your olive tree, the better! Watering will help swell the olive as it ripens too. Harvest- all olives are green, unless you leave them longer on the branch! Pick your Olives anytime from mid to late October. Preparing- rinse your olive harvest in fresh water everyday. It takes around 2 weeks for them to lose their bitter taste.

After 2 weeks, leave them to soak in salt water for 2 days. Rinse your olives well. Your crop of olives should now start to taste like an olive! Finishing- Cover your olives with a white spirit vinegar for just 1 day. Transfer to a kilner jar, ensuring your jar has been cleaned thoroughly. Cover with a plain vegetable oil and layer up with peppercorns, garlic, chillies.. Leave your olives in the jar until Christmas- do not be tempted to munch them before that!