Journal September 23, 2013 Fall has arrived, for sure!

The Arbequina olive  purchased last week from Foreverfruitless11 on eBay was such a nice tree I could not resist buying another tree.  What a great buy, twenty dollars, delivered!  The second tree arrived today and it is another beauty.

This tree, however, has olives on it!  I had asked Steve to see if he could find a tree with olives and he said he would, and he did.  Great tree, great service.

Another company that I like for great plants and service is Groworganic.com.  Their trees are sourced  from Santa Cruz Olive Tree Farm in California.  The farm only sells wholesale, but Groworganic.com is a retail outlet for several varieties of their olive trees.

The trees that I purchased from them were at least three feet high and they convinced me to abandon growing small trees.  Going forward I will aim for potted trees between 2 and 3 feet high.  Three more large size trees are on order: Leccino, Cailletier “Nicoise” and a Mission.

As for fall being here; tonight the temperature is forecast to be 37 degrees F, so with shorter daylight hours and falling temperatures the trees should begin to go dormant soon.  Olive trees require at least 400 hours with the temperature averaging 50 degrees to adequately flower in the spring.  Conditions in the greenhouse should be ideal, with days in the sixties and nights in the thirties and forties.