Olea europaea
Olive tree
Common names: True olive tree
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −8 °C
- Harvest
- Oct–Nov
- Spacing
- 400 cm, rows 500 cm
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Hans Hillewaert · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The olive tree (Olea europaea) is a symbol of the Mediterranean, a long‑lived evergreen tree with silvery, shimmering foliage and a knobby trunk. Its fruits are bitter and inedible raw; they must be pickled or pressed into oil before consumption. In most DACH regions it is not winter‑hardy and is typically grown in a pot, tolerating only sunny, frost‑free summers and a protected winter location.
Care instructions
Place the olive tree outdoors in full sun from May (week 19) to October. Use a well‑draining, relatively lean potting mix. Water deeply but allow the soil to dry out between waterings; waterlogging is its greatest enemy. Overwinter in a bright, cool spot at 2 to 10 °C (e.g., a stairwell or cold winter garden) and water sparingly. Prune in spring (April, week 15) to open up the canopy and let light reach the interior.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestOct–Nov
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, well-drained, lime-loving, lean, dry
The olive tree needs a very well-drained, rather lean and slightly lime-containing soil. Waterlogging is its most common cause of death. Outdoors (only in mild locations such as the Upper Rhine or the Palatinate), choose a deep, sandy-gravelly soil and mix plenty of coarse sand and gravel into heavy loam; in a container, a sandy substrate with about a third added quartz sand and gravel suits it. Keep the pH neutral to slightly alkaline (7 to 8) and avoid acidic peat composts.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Jun
Outdoors, in early spring (March/April), spread a thin layer of mature compost around the trunk and rake it in shallowly, sparingly, because the tree grows modestly and tolerates oversupply poorly. In addition, from April you can work in horn shavings at the surface so the nitrogen is released slowly over early summer. From July no more nitrogen-heavy feeding, so the wood hardens by autumn and becomes frost-hardy. Feed container plants during the growing phase (April to June) with organic liquid fertiliser and stop feeding in late summer.
Overwintering
The safest way is to grow the olive tree in a container and bring it from October/November to a bright, frost-free place at around 5 to 10 °C (unheated stairwell, bright garage, cool conservatory), water only sparingly and put it fully outdoors again only after the Ice Saints. Outdoors, overwintering works only in a sheltered spot against a south-facing wall with a frost-tolerant variety: wrap trunk and crown in horticultural fleece or hessian and cover the root zone thickly with mulch, leaves or brushwood.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
- From seed
- Grafting
The most reliable method is propagation from cuttings: in early summer (June to August), cut semi-ripe shoots 10 to 20 cm long, remove the lower leaves and leave only 2 to 3 pairs of leaves at the top. Insert the cuttings into moist, well-drained seed compost and put the pot somewhere warm and bright (20 to 25 °C). Rooting takes about 4 to 12 weeks; patience is needed, because olives root rather reluctantly. For air layering, score a branch, wrap the wound in moist moss and seal it airtight in film; roots form after 2 to 6 months, and then you separate the layer. Sowing from fresh, ripe (untreated, black) olive stones is possible: remove the flesh completely, soak the stone in lukewarm water for about 24 hours, set it about 2 cm deep in seed compost and keep it warm. Expect several weeks to months of germination time and a long wait until the first fruit; seedlings do not come true to type and are unsuitable for a targeted fruit yield. If you want to preserve a particular fruiting variety, graft a scion of the desired variety onto a vigorous (wild) olive rootstock (whip-and-tongue or cleft grafting in spring); this is the professional method for plants true to type with good yields, but in a Central European home garden it is rather one for the experienced.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
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From the magazine
Overwintering the olive in a pot: cool, bright, almost dry
The potted olive rarely dies of frost but of wet and darkness. Why you overwinter it cool, bright and almost dry and bring it indoors only late.
Overwintering potted fruit: the roadmap by temperature and light
You overwinter potted fruit by temperature and light, not the calendar. The roadmap for fig, olive and citrus, so each plant gets the right winter quarters.