SAN ANTONIO — The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will present an Olive Production and Management Seminar Nov. 30 in San Antonio.
Registration is from 9:30-10 a.m. and the seminar from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the San Antonio Livestock Exposition grounds, 3201 E. Houston St. It will be held in the Dairy Barn, for which the closest entrance is the West Gate, Gate A, located off E. Houston St.
The program is open to commercial olive producers, small-acreage farm operators and the general public.
“Olives are an interesting but challenging agricultural crop for Texas,” said Monty Nesbitt, AgriLife Extension program specialist in horticultural sciences, College Station. “While olives are more tolerant to drought and salinity than many citrus crops, there are also many challenges, including variations in temperature. This program is intended to help identify those challenges to olive production and management, and present some suggestions and solutions.”
The cost of the program is $30 per person, and checks may be made payable to Bexar County Master Gardeners. To register, contact Angel Torres at 210-631-0400 or matorres@ag.tamu.edu.
Send checks to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Attn: Angel Torres, 3355 Cherry Ridge Drive, Suite 212, San Antonio, Texas 78230.
Topics and presenters are:
— Temperature constraints on growing olives in Texas, Nesbitt.
— Orchard layout: raised beds and planting distances, Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist, Uvalde.
— Keeping weeds under control, Jim Kamas, AgriLife Extension fruit specialist, Fredericksburg.
— Olive knot, phytophthora and other potential diseases, Kimberly Cochran, AgriLife Extension plant pathologist, Uvalde.
— Do’s and don’ts of fertilizing olive trees, Kamas.
— Flutriafol trials to combat cotton root rot, Stein.
— Variety trials in Texas, Nesbitt.
— Current research on olive tree establishment, Dr. Daniel Leskovar, director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension in Uvalde and plant physiologist.
Lunch is included and a question-and-answer session will follow program presentations.
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