In an attempt to keep the olive trees from blooming indoors in the winter and let them bloom in the spring outdoors I kept the photoperiod to the daylight hours of the winter solstice.
In spite of my efforts, they are beginning to bloom anyway.
In their natural environment, they bloom in late spring, however, each year my trees bloom in late January or early February.
The trees are not exposed any natural light, as they are in grow tents, so all I can think of is that they must have some internal trigger that tells them it is time bloom. It is not an aberration, as the varieties I have are from several parts of the world and mostly all are beginning to bloom.
So, I guess the answer is to increase the light cycle to 16 hours per day, grab a brush, and hand pollinate them.
Not complaining, just an observation that we will never understand plants completely.