Dealing with the olive tree fly

Given Napa Valley’s Mediterranean climate, it’s no surprise that olive trees have long been grown here. But in recent years, the trees have grown increasingly popular as landscape trees and as a source of olives for curing and pressing. I planted nine olive trees 16 years ago with no objective other than to block the view of our neighbors’ collection of old cars, trucks, boats and whatever else they could not part with. However, once our trees started bearing fruit, the prospect of our own olive oil was too hard to resist.

While we’re talking about pests and diseases, don’t miss the great report on managing olive lace bug in the June edition of Olivegrower & Processor, hitting letterboxes soon.