olive oil trees
Olive production and management was the topic of the recent seminar in San Antonio. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension photo by Kathleen Phillips)

SAN ANTONIO — More than 100 commercial olive producers, small-acreage farm operators and others attended the recent Olive Production and Management Seminar presented by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

The seminar, held at the San Antonio Livestock Exposition grounds, focused on the opportunities and challenges for olive production in Texas.

“While olives are more tolerant to drought and salinity than many citrus crops, there are also many challenges,” said Monty Nesbitt, AgriLife Extension program specialist in horticultural sciences, College Station.

At the seminar, Nesbitt presented on temperature constraints on growing olives in Texas. Other AgriLife Extension experts presented topics ranging from orchard layout, weed control and fertilization to olive tree diseases, variety trials and current research on olive tree establishment.

“This program helped identify a number of challenges to olive production and management, and presented some suggestions and solutions,” said David Rodriguez, AgriLife Extension horticulturist for Bexar County.

Rodriguez, who helped coordinate the seminar, said the majority of those attending were small-acreage producers who were already involved to some degree in olive production but wanted to expand and know how to produce a good quality crop.

“We had people from throughout the state attending the seminar and even had a few producers from Argentina there,” Rodriguez said. “Most of those attending were mainly seeking information about olive production toward making olive oil, while others were interested in using olives to make other products.”

Among those attending the seminar were Tom and Rebecca McCullough, who have devoted 5 five acres of their orchard, located 20 miles west of San Antonio, to olive production.

“Olives are the foundation crop for the orchard, but we also produce pecans and peaches,” said Tom McCullough. “The seminar was very timely in that now the growing season is over, and we’re reevaluating for the next growing season. We had issues with weed control and fertilization this past season, so the information we got at the seminar will be useful in addressing these challenges for the next one.”

McCullough, who recently added an olive mill, said the seminar provided specifics he felt would be beneficial to his operation.

“The attendees said this was one of the best programs we have ever presented on olive production and management,” said Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist based in Uvalde. “Most of the attendees were impressed with how specific the information relating to olive production and management actually was.”

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