Can you grow Lemon or Olive trees on St. Barts?

Has anyone ever noticed any olive or lemon trees anywhere on the island?

I've seen Mango trees, and benefited from renting a villa with one at the perfect time to pick them. I have not seen a lemon or olive tree, but they may exist on the island.

There are lime trees so I imagine there could be lemons. There are also papaya, but I have never seen olive trees here... there are also guava, corrossol (soursop), and other tropical fruits...

Let us not forget BANANAS!

And Acajous!

When Mario worked at Emaraude Plage Cheryl wanted a banana daiquiri. He had run out of bananas yet said he would have a present for her the next day. We stopped at the bar the next day and had a bag full of bananas that he picked out of a tree in his backyard. The most delicious bananas we had ever had!

amyb said:

Let us not forget BANANAS!

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We have many olive trees on our property in Greece, interestingly I didn't realize they needed a cool winter. St. Barts and Greece remind me so much of each other that I just assumed olive trees can grow on St. Barts, thanks for the Wiki lesson.

A lot of fruit (and other) trees have a requirement for "chilling hours" where they need to spend a certain amount of time at a low temp (think mid-40s F) in order to remain healthy and productive. That's why Georgia is famous for peaches and not apples!

We have olive trees by the zillions here in San Diego and have 5 or 6 of them on our property as well as citrus groves all over. The olive trees are and have been at risk for years from a blight which the state monitors in your trees with a sticky card that is collected. We have to give them medicine and care to keep them from dying. Unfortunately it is a battle but we love our trees. It is cool at night here except in summer months, which you would not expect but in the winter we wear down jackets at night in winter, especially because we eat outside at restaurants due to Covid. Olives require a lot of clean up if you don’t do olive “ birth control “ ahead of time, and the dogs eat the olives and then get stomach aches, so be careful if you have olive trees.

Do you harvest the olives? And if so, do you lay big tarps under the trees to catch them as they fall?

Hi Bart, we do "birth control" now (live and learn!) as the olives make a total mess, stain your pavers, get into the cracks, get all over your grassy areas and driveways where you squish them with your car..so no, we do not harvest them. But you could if you were so inclined. Mostly we tried to keep our dear departed dog from ingesting them as the pits are terrible for them. With all these trees, you would think people would harvest them but I don't have any friends that have mentioned that. We are just working hard to keep these lovely trees alive. There are lots of orange groves here in the neighborhood so everyone is welcome to pick the oranges and everyone has at least a lemon tree and or lime tree or multiples, so they do grow well here! We have food banks come with volunteers, too, and pick the oranges and take them to people to have fresh oranges.

Here is the info for the Olive disease if anyone out there might be interested: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/olive/olive-tree-with-xylella-disease.htm

Thanks!!