Fruitless olive tree?

Question

We bought a fruitless olive tree approx 10 years ago, for the frist several years it was "fruitless" now it blooms and gets olives, nothing big enough to do anything with, but big enough to make a mess, is there something I can spray on the tree to keep it from producing these little black messy pits? The tree is too big to just catch the blooms before the mature, its just a mess

thank you for your response

Answer 1

Are you sure you have a female olive? It could be a male tree and what you are calling pits may be the left over male flower parts.

There is a product called Florel that will eliminate fruit; however I don't know if it will work on olives, it is legal in your state and if you have the spray equipment to use it......if you tree is large, you can't reach the top. You might want to do a Google search on Florel.

Also contact your Cooperative Extension Service in your county. Talk to him/her to see if you might have a male tree in which case Florel won't work, if Florel will work on olives, if it is still available, etc.

Finally anything you spray will be deadly to honey bees in the area (no so much on your olive as it is mostly wind pollinated).

Answer 2

Ouch, I think you're pretty much out of luck on that one if you can't rip all the flowers off in time. Your best bet is to cut it down and start over. Unless you want to open an olive business ;)

If you stress the tree to the point that it is nearly dying, it won't have the energy to produce fruit, but you might kill it too. I don't know what you would do.... try to keep it from getting enough water, rip off some bark... that seems pretty cruel though.

There aren't any kinds of spray-on sterilization for plants that I'm aware of.