How To Tell Good Olive Oil

Trim the olive tree canopy into whatever shape you have selected. Shaping an olive tree crown into a ball means that you lose all flowers and fruit. Don't start pruning an olive topiary until the tree has been settled in the pot or barrel for about a...

Keep reading to learn more about potted olive tree care and how to grow an olive tree in a pot.Can you grow olive trees in containers? Plastic containers retain more water, which can be deadly for an olive tree.Place your container grown olive trees in...

However, when the trees are grown in a container, you can keep them smaller.in spring when new growth begins. In any event, it's a good idea to use dwarf olive trees as potted plants.

Long ago, the olives were painstakingly crushed between two stones, but today, they are crushed automatically between steel blades.Once crushed, the resulting paste is macerated or stirred to release the precious oil.

Do not add soil medium, compost or fertilizer to the newly planted olive tree. To increase fruit set, it is recommended that you plant more than one cultivar close together.Olive trees like to be planted in well drained soil in a sunny area of the landscape.

A tree's leaves produce its food, so having many leaves when the tree is young provides good energy for growth.When it is time to shape the tree, remember that it is better to make a few, well-placed cuts than to make many small ones.

Severity of the infection varies from cultivar to cultivar, but young, one-year-old plants are much more susceptible than older olives.While this disease has been witnessed worldwide throughout olive growing regions, the increase in cultivation, especially...

Depending upon the type of oil the grower is making, a combination of all three may be used for pressing.Traditionally, picking olives is done by hand, even in commercial groves. If you are picking for oil, harvest all the olives in this manner and gather...

The bark is an interesting shade of white. New Mexico olive usually grows many spiny branches. Alternatively, once you start growing New Mexico olive trees, you can remove all branches but one to force the shrub into a tree shape.

Not only is it a good-looking product, the sight of it pouring out of the spout and into the containers the members will take home is what the hullabaloo is all about. Photo by Rick Gush Moreno, our gracious and enthusiastic host, and the president of...

It should be blue or brown glass, not clear, to limit the amount of direct light reaching the oil, which can make the quality deteriorate faster or turn the oil rancid.Read the label closely for clues.

Last year our blueberry crop was pitiful so I added elemental sulfur last fall in hopes of righting the pH and giving them a boost. Payoff! They are loaded with blooms and bees right now.

In fact, you can have one cluster containing both green and ripe fruit. Blueberries have a higher antioxidant capacity than any other fruit, earning them a place on your table and in your home garden.

Vinca has tubular, five-petal, blossoms under 1 inch in diameter. Vinca foliage roots at each node along the ground to form a dense ground cover. Vinca major and vinca minor, also known as periwinkle, and impatiens are both widely used flowering ground...

Avoid pulling on the zucchini, as this can damage both the vegetable and the plant.Check the plant daily once zucchinis begin reaching maturity. Zucchini, a summer squash, is an abundant producer in the home vegetable garden.

This is not the same as what happens when the vines freeze; frozen vines will turn black and begin to rot.Before you dig up all of your potatoes, check them for readiness to make sure that they are mature enough to harvestand will store well.

Use a fingernail and gently try to puncture the pumpkin's skin. If you plan on eating the pumpkin, the bleach solution will evaporate in a few hours and so will not be harmful when the pumpkin is eaten.Learning how to tell when pumpkins are ripe will...

A ripe lime will smelly lime-y; those that are underripe will not have a strong smell. Limes that don't give to a squeeze are under-ripe; those that feel too soft are too ripe.Choose fruits that feel heavy, since these have more juice than those that...

Mint smells like most chewing gum or air fresheners. Basil smells similar to cloves. Basil and mint are herbs that have numerous uses. Mint is typically found in Middle Eastern and Asian cuisine and is used in drinks and desserts.

So would any other plant-sucking insects, such as. The critters were slinking around with their noses held high and their eyes all squinty.The new shoots and flowers are eaten as a vegetable in India and Neem twigs were one of the first tooth brushes.

A ripe orange will have a crisp, sweet citrus scent.Taste the orange. A ripe orange will have a smooth, bright orange-colored skin. Avoid oranges that feel spongy or contain soft spots.Smell the orange.

If the rind feels very firm and there's a lot of resistance while trying to cut the fruit, the melon is likely not ready to eat. The edible portion (minus the rind) of the fruit should appear pink and juicy.

Warm-season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and melons can suffer greatly, if air temperatures drop below 50 degrees, unless you've protected the transplants with cloches or some other plant-protection device.A special word of caution...

The interior color is mostly white for both vegetables, but cucumbers have a slight tint of green. The first clue is the stem end of the fruit -- zucchini has a woody stem at the end while a cucumber has a small, circular scar.

New technology developed by the USDA enables testing of olive oil for quality control. About six years ago, he chose olive oil as a model for testing his analysis. Although using PCR technology to detect specific plant DNA in olive oil isn't new, the...

The smell of homemade pumpkin pie or ambiance of pumpkins all around symbolizes the joy of autumn. However, this can also happen if a person drops and damages the pumpkin.Hold the pumpkin to see if it's firm on all sides.

Water the soil to saturate it thoroughly and place the hibiscus in a location with moderate temperatures and light to see if it begins growing again.Add compost around the hibiscus if the plant grows in the soil.