Another beautiful plant arrived yesterday, the Kalamata plant from Temecula Olive Oil Company. The plant was much larger, but was pruned prior to being potted. I saved the trimmed sections to be used as cuttings, however, I doubt that they will take.
Looking at the plant I can see that it has been saddle grafted, which means the rootstock is not a Kalamata. Apparently, Kalamata olives are notoriously difficult to propagate via cuttings; in any case, I planted the cuttings just in case I might get lucky.
Although it has been less than four full weeks since the Arbequina olive tree was received and transplanted; it is responding nicely to being grown hydroponically. In fact, I am finding that olives make ideal houseplants and I wish I had thought of growing them much sooner.
The Arbequina is being grown indoors under LED lighting until I can open the greenhouse again in late March. Ava and I are naming all of the plants with names appropriate to the country of origin of the olives, Ava is in charge of selecting the names. We have Ferdinand and Isabella from Spain; Omar from Tunis; Terese, Antonio and Mario from Italy; Pythagoras and Alexis from Greece, and of course the Arbequina, Pepito, also from Spain.
I am firmly of the opinion that olives make good candidates for container or houseplants, whether or not they produce olives, as they are so attractive and easy to grow.
Time will tell....
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