The olive is also sometimes grown from seed; to facilitategermination, the oily pericarp is first softened by slight rotting,

or soaked in hot water or in an alkaline solution.

remove seed from untreated fruit. & use only FRESH seed. lightly cover the seed soil temp 65-70F & takes 30-120 days to germinate.....
Plant the whole pit. Make sure that all flesh is thoroughly washed away. You may be able to improve germination by soaking or scarification of the pit. I've even read of some people scarifying to the extent that the seed is effectively free of the pit. Plant the whole pit. Make sure that all flesh is thoroughly washed away. You may be able to improve germination by soaking or scarification of the pit. I've even read of some people scarifying to the extent that the seed is effectively free of the pit. Mechanical or chemical scarification is used to treat mechanical dormancy. In scarification, the endocarp can be cracked mechanically or clipped at the radicle end, with care taken not to damage the embryo. Clipping just the cotyledonary end of the endocarp does not improve germination. Good germination results can be obtained using a seed cracking device before subsequent handling procedures (Martin and others 1986). Pits may be soaked in concentrated sulfuric acid to soften the endocarp. Soaking time depends on the thickness of the endocarp; typical soaking times for >Manzanillo= are between 24 and 30 hours. The acid bath is followed by 1 to 2 hours of rinsing in water (Crisosto and Sutter 1985). The pits can be planted directly after the endocarp treatments. Pits should be planted at a depth about 2 to 3 times their diameter. Seeds planted outdoors in December do not germinate until the following spring. Pits can also be planted in pots or seedbeds in a greenhouse maintained at a 21 to 24 EC daytime temperature. Germination takes up to 3 months. It is critical that the seeds do not dry out after germination begins. Germination is quicker and more uniform when treatments to overcome internal dormancy are carried out in addition to scarification. The most successful of these treatments on a commercial scale is stratification. Pits are scarified as described above and then soaked in water at room temperature for 24 hours. The pits are mixed with moist sand or vermiculite and then placed in the dark in a controlled environment. The temperature is kept at 15 EC for 30days. Stratification is thought to reduce abscisic acid (which inhibits germination) within the embryo or seedcoat. After stratification, pits can be planted outdoors if the weather is suitable;

severe weather can cause losses. Pits can be planted in a greenhouse maintained at a 21 to 27 EC daytime temperature. Bottom heat is necessary. Germination should occur within 1 month. Transplanting seedlings from the greenhouse to the nursery should include steps to harden the seedlings, such as partial shade provided by a lathhouse. Adequate irrigation and fertilization are recommended to ensure continued rapid growth. Nursery practice and seedling care. Virtually all olive trees are produced from rooted cuttings. Seed handling difficulties, low germination percentage, and slow initial seedling growth rate make seedling production impractical. germination First, scarify the seeds. For faster germination, soak the seeds in slightly hot water for 24-48 hours, followed by 3 months before sowing at 3/4" deep in your soil mixture. Any planting out is best done in late Spring or early Summer, after the last expected frosts. Keep damp soil, not soaking wet. Keep pot in warm situation 68-75F. Germination can take several months. It can be a lot more depending on their degree of unbroken dormancy, don't lose faith. Seed coats may be so hard that they are impermeable to water. They need to be scratched or broken using a knife or sandpaper, in order to germinate. Chip the seeds with a sharp knife or make a few swipes with a sharp edged file or use sandpaper to allow moisture being more readily absorbed.

Scarification / Stratification

Las semillas, limpias de restos de pulpa, se conservaron durante 3-4 meses a 4C, salvo en el caso de obtencin de embriones que se utilizaron directamente. En el conjunto de las especies consideradas, aunque no en cada una de ellas (tabla 1), se utilizaron los procedimientos de germinacin que a continuacin se indican: i) germinacin en semilleros.- Se sembraron semillas completas y con P. latofolia semillas sin cubierta en bandejas de PVC ( 7 cm de profundidad) con substrato hmedo de suelo (normalmente del lugar de procedencia de la semilla) y turba, en proporcin 4:1 v/v, en cmara de cultivo a 25C de temperatura, 111 E/m-2 s -1 de iluminacin y 16 h. de fotoperodo. ii) Germinacin in vitro.- En relacin con la especie, se utilizaron semillas completas, escarificadas, sin cubierta o embriones aislados (tabla 1). Una vez extrada del fruto la semilla completa, se desinfect por una primera inmersin en etanol 70-80%, durante 5-10 segundos, seguida de otra mas prolongada ( 20 min.) en solucin al

20% de NaOCl, del 3.5 % de cloro activo, a temperatura de 40C y agitacin. A continuacin, las semillas se lavaron cuidadosamente con agua destilada estril. La escarificacin de las semillas se realiz por rozamiento con papel de lija fino, tras lo cualse sometieron a la desinfeccin indicada mas arriba. La semilla sin cubierta (desnuda) se obtuvo seccionando sta con un cortatubos en las mas duras, o por presin en las mas frgiles. Para el aislamiento del embrin, la semilla sin cubierta, preparada como se indic antes, se puso en placa Petri con agua destilada estril, y as se incub a 25C durante 48h. Esto produjo hinchazn y reblandecimiento de los tejidos del endospermo, lo que facilit la realizacin de cortes laterales en el mismo, que dejaron visible el embrin, que se extrajo fcilmente con la punta del bistur. Para su cultivo in vitro, tanto las semillas como los embriones, se cultivaron en tubos de ensayo estriles de 21x150 mm con 8 ml de medio nutritivo en agar 0.7% y pH 5.7. Como medio nutritivo se utiliz el MS (Murashige y Skoog, 1962). Las condiciones de la cmara de cultivo fueron temperatura de 251C, iluminacin 30E/m-2 s -1 y fotoperodo de 16 horas de luz. El trasplante desde in vitro a condiciones externas se realiz segn el mtodo propuesto por Cantos et al. (1993).
To break the dormancy of olive seeds : 1-Remove the bulb 2-excise the endocarb 3-put the seeds on a bed of 1cm of fine moisted perlite cover the seeds with 1/2 cm of fine granules of perlite 4- store the seeds in glass or sterilized plastic container in the fridge 5- in 4 weeks..they start to germinate 6- transfer them into germinating room(20 degree C) in appropriate media 7- 2 more weeks you will see the seedlings coming out Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_germinate_olive_seed#ixzz1NmVmYNso Olive seeds do not germinate promptly when placed under favourable conditions, which is a problem in raising young plants for breeding or experimental purposes. In a series of experiments an investigation of the role of temperature in the germination of olive embryos was conducted. Naked, unchilled olive embryos (Olea europaea L. cv. Chalkidikis), cultured in vitro at 20C, had a germination capacity of 73%, whereas that of embryos which had previously been chilled at 10C for 2 or more weeks reached 96%. Intact seeds did not germinate at 20C unless they had previously been subjected to 10C for 3 or 4 weeks. Embryos chilled while in the intact seed and excised just before transfer to 20C, reacted in a similar way to naked embryos, but reached their maximum germination capacity after 4 weeks at 10C. Under constant temperature conditions the highest germination percentage of embryos was observed at 10 and 15C and the highest germination rate at 15C, while a moderate capacity and rate of germination occurred at 20C, and a very low percentage and rate at 25 and 30C. Prechilling at 10C did not affect

germination at 15C, but improved the percentage and the rate of germination at 20, 25 and 30C. The germination percentages of embryos chilled for 1 or 2 weeks at 10C and then transferred to 25C were lower than those of similarly chilled embryos transferred to 20C. The chilling effect could not be reversed at 25C when the embryos had been chilled for 3 or more weeks. The results show that olive seeds exhibit a state of dormancy that is caused by factors residing partly in the endosperm and partly within the embryo.