Learn How to Grow Olive Trees in the Home Landscape

Olea europaea

An olive tree planted today can outlive you, your children, and their children.

Some trees in the Mediterranean region have been fruiting for more than a thousand years, hollow-trunked and gnarled but still cropping.

Even a young specimen is unmistakable – narrow leaves that turn silver when caught by the wind and a trunk that grows more characterful every year.

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Across the warm southern and western regions of the US in USDA Hardiness Zones 8 to 11, gardeners grow these trees in the ground to harvest the fruit for processing.

In colder regions, they can be grown in pots and brought under cover for winter.

You can choose to skip the fruit entirely and plant fruitless cultivars for the silvery ornamental presence alone, grown in a border or beside a door.

So whether you’re after a bowl of home-cured olives, a bottle of your own oil, or to enjoy the trees as ornamentals, this guide will walk you through how to grow your own.

Here’s what’s ahead:

Olive trees are slow-growing broadleaf evergreens with narrow leaves, green on top and silvery-white on the undersides.

Olea europaea is a member of the Oleaceae family, alongside lilac, jasmine, and ash.

Native to the Mediterranean basin, standard types reach 20 to 30 feet tall and wide and live for decades, even centuries, so a potted olive can become a family heirloom.

Patio-size selections stay around eight to 10 feet and dwarf fruitless types top out at two to six feet.

Olives bloom in late spring on the previous year’s wood. The small, creamy white flowers have four petals and are carried in feathery sprays, pollinated by the wind.

Thousands of flowers open all at once, though only a small fraction of these ever set fruit.

After pollination, the fruit, which are drupes, swell over summer and ripen in fall, turning darker from green, to yellowish-green, and finally black when fully ripe in late fall or early winter.

The green or black olives that we eat as antipasti or use in cooking are the same fruit at different stages, not different kinds, so it comes down to when you pick. That color change is called veraison.

The trees also need a cool winter to set bud, roughly 200 to 300 chill hours below about 45°F, which is why a tree kept warm indoors all winter never fruits.

Most cultivars are partly self-fertile, so a single tree sets some fruit alone, but nearly all will provide a better yield with a second cultivar growing within about 50 feet.

A few varieties need a specific partner to crop at all.

Most olive trees tend towards alternate or biennial bearing. A heavy crop one year suppresses next year’s flower buds so you can expect a small crop the following year.

Fresh olives are loaded with oleuropein, which makes them inedible raw. The fruits need to be cured to leach out the oleuropein before they can be consumed.

Fruitless, ornamental types produce less than one percent of the normal pollen and no fruit to clean up.

Cultivars are generally categorized into four loose types – table, oil, dual-purpose, and fruitless ornamental.

How to Grow

Olives thrive in a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers, and cool but not frigid winters.

In Zones 8 to 11 you can generally skip any specific winter care. Growing in Zone 7 is doable with a cold-hardy cultivar, a sheltered spot, and winter protection.

Outside of those regions, you’d need to grow in a container and overwinter your tree in a cool, frost-free location.

Light

These trees need full sun, and plenty of it. Aim for at least six hours of direct sun a day, eight is better through early summer.

Anything less than six hours a day and the tree will fail to thrive.

Soil

Olives grow in poor, rocky, even alkaline ground but cannot tolerate wet feet.

Water

An established in-ground tree is genuinely drought-tolerant. Provide a deep soak every other week during particularly hot summer weather, in the absence of rain.

Newly planted trees require frequent watering through their first summer.

For container trees, overwatering is the single most common way to kill them.

The roots sit in a small volume of mix, and if it stays soggy they suffocate and the plant will drop its leaves.

Water only when the top inch of soil has dried out and instead of light watering, give the soil a deep soak, and allow it to drain. Dump out any water collecting in a saucer below the pot.

Fertilizer

In the ground, olives are light feeders, and an established tree in decent soil often needs no additional fertilizer.

If you’re growing in a container, fertilize with a balanced product like 10-10-10 (NPK) in early spring and again in midsummer, from the second year onwards.

Yellowing or chlorotic leaves may indicate that the tree lacks nutrients. Before you feed in-ground specimens, conduct a soil test and amend according to the results.

Cultivars to Select

Choosing a cultivar really depends on what you want. Pay attention to the number of chill hours required and whether the plant is self-fruitful.

Here are some options:

Arbequina

‘Arbequina’ is a small, self-fertile Spanish cultivar from Catalonia, suitable for cultivation in Zones 8 to 11.

In the ground it reaches around 15 to 20 feet tall, but is slow-growing and can remain fairly compact in a pot.

‘Arbequina’

’Arbequina’ is grown mainly for the mild, buttery oil, though the small fruits also cure into good table olives.

You can find ’Arbequina’ available in a variety of sizes at Fast Growing Trees.

Koroneiki

The world’s leading oil cultivar for polyphenol content, ‘Koroneiki’ is prolific and makes a robust, peppery extra-virgin oil. The fruit is too small to bother curing for table use.

‘Koroneiki’

It tops out at about 20 feet tall and is hardy in Zone 8 to 10.

You can find ‘Koroneiki’ available at Fast Growing Trees in your choice of sizes.

Leccino

One of the most widely planted Italian oil cultivars, ‘Leccino’ is a vigorous, spreading tree that grows to around 25 feet tall with a faintly weeping habit, hardy in USDA Zones 7 to 11.

‘Leccino’

The fruit ripens early and produces a mild, delicate oil. It crops poorly on its own, so plant a pollenizer such as ‘Maurino’ or ‘Pendolino’ nearby.

Find ‘Leccino’ trees available at Fast Growing Trees.

Manzanillo

The most widely grown table variety in the world, the Spanish ‘Manzanillo’ (also sold as Manzanilla) bears large, rounded, meaty fruit for green and black table olives.

It grows into a broad, spreading tree around 25 feet tall and wide, hardy in USDA Zones 8 to 11.

‘Manzanillo’

It is partly self-fertile but sets a heavier crop with another cultivar nearby.

You can find ‘Manzanillo’ available at Fast Growing Trees.

Maurino

A vigorous Tuscan cultivar, ‘Maurino’ is grown both for a fruity, aromatic oil and as a reliable pollenizer for ‘Leccino’ and other Italian varieties.

‘Maurino’

It grows about 25 feet tall and 20 feet wide, hardy in USDA Zones 8 to 11, with small fruit best suited to pressing for oil.

You can find ‘Maurino’ available at Fast Growing Trees in your choice of sizes.

Pendolino

Named for its pendulous, weeping branches, the Tuscan ‘Pendolino’ is the classic pollenizer planted among Italian oil varieties, producing abundant pollen and olives that yield fruity oil.

‘Pendolino’

It reaches about 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide, hardy in USDA Zones 8 to 11, and its drooping form carries some ornamental value too.

Visit Fast Growing Trees to pick up ‘Pendolino’ in a variety of sizes.

Maintenance

Olive trees flower and set fruit on one-year-old shoots so you want to prune to open up the canopy and allow light in.

In its first four years, prune the tree only as needed to maintain its shape.

As your tree matures and begins fruiting, you’ll discover an oddity: they never bear fruit in the same place on a stem, so new growth each year is necessary for flower production and fruiting.

In late winter to early spring, once all danger of frost has passed, tip prune to shape and thin the canopy to an open-vase form with three to five main scaffold branches.

You can also prune after harvest but before first frost.

Regular pruning can also help soften the swing of alternate-bearing. Cutting back each year can even out fruit production.

If you’re growing in containers in cold regions, move the pot indoors gradually over the course of a week or two when temperatures start to dip below freezing.

Resist the urge to bring the plant indoors where it’s warm and cozy unless it’s an ornamental type as olives require chill hours.

Propagation

Growing from seed takes a long time and in addition, those grown from seed are unlikely to grow true to the parent plant.

You can propagate from cuttings or by digging up suckers – but the most reliable way to get started is to purchase a container-grown specimen from the nursery.

From Cuttings

The most reliable method is to take semi-hardwood cuttings in fall.

To do this, take six- to eight-inch cuttings from firm, current-season growth and strip the leaves from the lower half.

Prepare your pots with gritty, well-draining potting medium that’s lightly moistened.

Dip the cut end into rooting hormone and push the cuttings into the medium so they are about two to three inches deep.

Firm the soil around the cutting. Cover with a clear plastic bag or cloche to keep the air humid and set it somewhere bright but out of direct sun.

Maintain even moisture in the soil but don’t allow it to become waterlogged. When the cutting starts to produce new growth, you can pot it up to a larger container.

Dividing Suckers

Olives often produce suckers which can be dug up and transplanted.

In spring, scrape the soil away from the base of a healthy sucker to expose the roots. Carefully cut it free from the parent and dig up the roots and a little surrounding soil.

Pot it up in well-draining potting mix at the same depth. Water in well.

Set the pot in a protected location with bright, indirect sunlight and maintain even moisture.

You can transplant the following spring.

Transplanting

Planting a young tree in the fall gives it a chance to become well-established before putting on new growth in spring.

But this is an option only if temperatures in your area won’t drop below 30°F or if you can protect the tree.

This is because container-grown specimens are susceptible to frost damage during their first winter outdoors.

If waiting until spring seems more prudent, hold off until all danger of frost is past. Planting in the heat of summer is not recommended.

Dig a hole about the same size as the container, and about an inch shallower. Water the tree thoroughly, remove it from its container, and untwist or cut any circling roots.

Set the root ball in the hole. Use soil you removed from the hole to build up about an inch of soil on top of the root ball, and grade down from the trunk to the surrounding soil.

Don’t add compost or other soil additives. The plant has to learn to love the native soil. But do top the planting area with mulch.

Water young specimens two or three times a week during their first summer. Give them a good four inches of water at each watering, and hydrate again when the soil dries out.

Pests and Disease

Olives are relatively trouble-free. Deer and other large browsers mostly leave them alone and maintaining adequate airflow keeps most fungal issues at bay.

Pests

Aphids and scale can turn up on stressed or container-grown specimens, leaving sticky residue and triggering leaf drop.

Treat them with neem oil or insecticidal soap, and fix the underlying stress, usually water or light.

For twenty years or so, California growers have been plagued by the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae), which lays its eggs inside the developing fruit, destroying it.

Management of fruit flies is difficult, and best achieved via clean gardening practices.

Some home gardeners have managed this problem effectively by hanging bait traps before fruit appears.

Gather and dispose of any fallen fruit to break the breeding cycle.

Disease

Maintaining an open canopy and planting in well-draining soil heads off most disease before it starts.

The most common is peacock spot, caused by a fungus Spilocaea oleaginea, that shows up as pock marks in the leaves – dark, circular spots ringed in yellow.

It’s most commonly seen during periods of wet weather and in severe cases the plant may drop its foliage.

The pathogen enters through wounds, so prune only in dry weather and disinfect your tools between cuts.

Verticillium wilt, caused by a soil-borne fungus, results in whole branches wilting and dying back. There is no cure, so remove affected wood and dispose of it in the trash.

Harvesting

If you’ve provided your olive tree with a happy home, it will begin to bear fruit when it’s around five years old.

Bear in mind, however, that it’s perfectly normal for them to produce fruit only every other year, or to produce alternating heavy and light crops from year to year.

When you harvest your olives depends on what you intend to do with them, and what flavor you seek.

All olives start out green before turning a purplish color, and then deepening to black. The younger the fruit, the more bitter it will be.

Typically, the fruits are harvested at their green stage if their intended use is for the table, although some varieties are best when black.

If a pressing is in the cards, the fruit is at its oiliest when it’s in its purple stage.

Processing

Raw olives are not tasty. They must be cured to dispel their inherent bitterness, which is caused by the chemical compound called oleuropein, mentioned above.

Inventive humans have developed a number of ways to banish the bitterness from these otherwise tasty little ovals, curing them in oil, water, brine, lye, or simply salt.

None of these methods is particularly difficult, but the fruits do have to marinate in your chosen mixture for several weeks – so don’t plan for an appetizer spread complete with homemade tapenade immediately after harvest!

Every method works the same way, drawing out the bitterness over time. There are four common approaches:

• Water cure: slit firm green olives, soak them in cold water, and change it daily for seven to 14 days until the bitterness eases, then keep them in a salt brine.
• Brine cure: ferment in a 10 percent salt brine (100 grams of non-iodized salt per liter of water) for one to several months. Hold the salt at 10 percent, since under-salting is a food-safety risk.
• Dry-salt cure: best for ripe black fruits. Bury them in about twice their weight of salt for two to eight weeks, then rinse and pack in oil.
• Lye cure: the fast commercial method, ready in seven to 10 days, and the one to treat with respect. Food-grade lye is caustic, and the olives must be rinsed thoroughly before eating, so follow a trusted recipe step by step.

If it’s oil you’re after, you’ll find as many extraction methods as there are days in a month.

At its most basic, the process entails:

1. Cleaning
2. Mashing
3. Squeezing the mash to extract juice
4. Separating the oil from non-oil liquid and particulate matter

It can take anywhere from 40 to 90 pounds of drupes to make one gallon of oil, so for most home growers a local cooperative mill is the smarter route.

The reward for all that patience is a bowl of olives that are unmistakably yours.

The simplest way to enjoy them is a warm marinade: gently heat cured olives in good oil with citrus zest, garlic, rosemary, and a pinch of fennel seed.

They make a fine tapenade, blitzed with capers, anchovy, and garlic for toast, pasta, or roast lamb.

A handful dropped into a puttanesca or a tagine adds salt-savory depth.

The dry-salt-cured black olives are the intense ones, best on their own with cheese and oil.

From Bitter Fruit to Your Own Bowl of Olives

So, what are you thinking? Is it time to add an olive tree to fill that blank spot in the backyard?

Do you have an olive tree? Which variety? Tell us about your adventures with O. europaea in the comments section below.

And if you decide a different fruit tree of the pitted variety is in your landscape plans, read these guides next:

• How to Grow Avocados
• Give the Gift of Fruit: How to Grow Peach Trees
• How to Grow and Care for Fruiting Cherry Trees