Tree · Oleaceae
Olive
Olea europaea
Give it full sun, lean soil, and a dry root run, and the olive thrives for generations.
Full sun
Every 14–30 days
USDA 8–11
20–49 ft · 6–15 m
Overview
The olive is a slow-growing evergreen from the Mediterranean, and it's right at home in hot, dry spots where hardly anything else will fruit. People have been growing it for its oil and fruit for thousands of years, and one tree can stick around for centuries. So planting an olive really is a long-game move, not something you do for a single season.
Here's the funny thing: an olive mostly wants you to leave it alone. Give it full sun, sharp drainage, and lean soil, and it'll shrug off poor, rocky, chalky ground that would starve a pickier tree. Water it too much or sit it in rich, soggy soil, though, and it sulks. Hold back a little, and it pays you right back.
There's one quirk worth knowing before you start. Ever tried an olive straight off the branch? It's way too bitter to eat raw, and it has to be cured first. The tree also wants a bit of winter chill to flower well, so it's better suited to a warm-temperate garden than the tropics.
Care
The short version: full sun, sharp drainage, and lean soil, and deep but occasional watering once the tree's settled in. Go easy on the feeding, keep it out of standing water, and prune in late winter to keep the canopy nice and open.
Light
Olives are total sun lovers and want full sun all day to fruit well. They'll cope with a bit of partial sun, but a shaded tree gets leggy and sets a thin crop, so give it the brightest spot you've got.
Water
Once it's established, the olive is genuinely drought tolerant and would much rather have a deep soak every 14 to 30 days than lots of little drinks. Let the soil dry right out in between. Soggy, waterlogged roots are the quickest way to lose a tree that could otherwise live for centuries.
Soil
Drainage matters way more than how rich the soil is here. Olives do great in well-drained sandy loam and are happy in poor, rocky, chalky ground across a wide pH of 6.0 to 8.5. What they can't stand is heavy soil that holds water around the roots.
Temperature
The olive takes real heat in stride, up to about 100°F (38°C), and doesn't blink at a dry Mediterranean summer. It's softer on the cold side, though, only handling brief dips to around 19°F (-7°C) before the wood gets damaged, so it belongs in a warm-temperate garden.
Humidity
Dry air is just fine by the olive, and it does best in low humidity around 20% to 50%. Damp, still air is what brings on those fungal leaf spots, so good airflow counts for a lot more than any moisture in the air.
Feeding
Olives are light feeders that grow lean on their own. One balanced, nitrogen-rich feed in spring is all it takes, just once a season. Give it more and you'll just get soft, leafy growth instead of fruit.
Pruning
Prune in late winter to early spring, opening the canopy into a loose vase shape so light and air can get to the middle. Take out the suckers, dead wood, and any crossing branches. An open tree fruits better and holds off the fungal spots that love dense, shady growth.
Repotting
A potted olive needs repotting every 2 to 3 years to stay healthy. Keep an eye out for roots circling the pot or poking out the drainage holes, water running straight through, and growth that's stalled, all signs it's outgrown its home.
Size & spacing
Left to its own devices, an olive gets to 20 to 50 feet (6 to 15 m) tall with a big spreading crown. Give it the room to match, around 15 to 30 feet (4.5 to 9 m) of clearance, since it's a tree that's in it for the long haul.
When to plant
The olive works on a slow Mediterranean schedule, so there's no rushing it. Pop young trees out in spring once the frost's gone and the soil's warmed up, watch for bloom in late spring, and pick your fruit through fall, from September into November.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: spring after the last frost once soil has warmed
- Harvest: blooms late spring; fruit harvested fall (September to November)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 8–11
Temperature: down to -12°C
Troubleshooting
Most olive trouble comes down to wet weather and wounds, whether that's a bacterial gall or a fungal leaf spot. The good part? Catch it early and a dry-day pruning usually sorts it out. Find what you're seeing below, then act before it works its way through the canopy.
One side of the tree suddenly wilting and dying back
When branches droop out of nowhere, usually just on one side, you're probably looking at verticillium wilt. It's a fungus in the soil that clogs up the tree's plumbing and starves off whole limbs, and if you slice into a wilting branch you'll spot the wood stained inside. There's no fix for it, so pull out the dead wood, ease off the watering, and whatever you do, don't replant olives where it's shown up before.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy dead wood
- Avoid overwatering
- Do not replant olives where the disease is known
Rough woody bumps showing up on twigs and branches
Those knobby swellings? That's olive knot, a bacterial disease that gets in through pruning cuts, frost cracks, and leaf scars, and it really takes off after wet weather. So wait for a dry day, cut the bad wood out well below the galls, and wipe your tools between cuts so you're not spreading it around. A copper spray after you prune or after a frost helps close things up.
Fix:
- Prune out infected wood in dry weather well below the galls
- Disinfect tools between cuts
- Apply a copper bactericide after pruning or frost injury
Little stings on the fruit with grubs inside
Those tiny puncture marks and pale grubs in the flesh are the olive fruit fly, and its larvae feed right inside the fruit as it ripens. Not sure? Just cut a suspect olive open and look, and hang some baited traps as harvest gets close. Picking on time and clearing away every dropped fruit goes a long way, and you can reach for approved bait sprays or kaolin clay if the flies get really thick.
Fix:
- Harvest promptly
- Sanitize fallen fruit
- Use approved bait sprays or kaolin clay where infestation is heavy
Peacock-eye rings on leaves that yellow and drop
See those sooty circles with a soft yellow ring around them? That's olive peacock spot, a fungus that likes the cool, damp lower canopy and gets the leaves dropping. The trick is to open the tree up with a bit of pruning so air moves through, and rake up the fallen leaves, since that's where the spores wait out the winter. A copper fungicide in fall, before the rains, keeps it from getting going.
Fix:
- Improve air circulation through pruning
- Apply a copper fungicide in fall before rains
- Rake and remove fallen infected leaves
Toxicity
Got pets? Good news, because the olive tree is non-toxic and safe to have around animals, livestock, and people, and the fruit's even edible once it's cured. The only real hazard is that hard pit, which can choke a pet or block the gut if it's swallowed whole, so just keep any fallen fruit picked up.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
Good news for cat people: the olive tree is safe and isn't toxic at all. The one thing to keep an eye on is a swallowed pit, which can get stuck in the gut, so just sweep up any fruit that drops.
Dogs None
Dogs won't get poisoned hanging around an olive, so no worries there. The pits are what to watch, since a gulped stone can choke or block things up, and it's best to skip the salty cured olives too.
Horses Safe
Horses grazing nearby are totally fine, because the foliage isn't toxic to them. Just don't let windfall fruit pile up, since a swallowed pit could be a choking hazard.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits are safe around the plant too, and it's non-toxic to them. A whole pit is way too big and hard for them anyway, so keep dropped fruit out of the hutch and run.
Livestock Safe
Goats, sheep, and cattle can browse around olives without any poisoning risk. It's really just the hard stones to think about, since a swallowed pit can lodge or choke.
Birds Safe
Olives aren't toxic to birds, and wild ones happily eat the fruit. The one catch is that dense pit, which can choke a smaller bird trying to gulp it down whole.
People Safe
Cured olives are a kitchen favorite and perfectly safe to eat, though the raw fruit off the tree is way too bitter to bother with. Don't bite down on the hard pit, and keep an eye on little kids so they don't swallow one.
The hard fruit pit is a choking and gastrointestinal obstruction hazard if swallowed, and cured table olives are very high in salt, so neither should be offered to pets.
Varieties
Olive cultivars mostly break down into ones grown for oil and ones grown for the table, plus a few bred to drop little or no fruit. Here are the names you're most likely to run into.
Arbequina
A little self-fertile Spanish cultivar that handles cold better than most and is happy either pressed for oil or grown in a pot.
Mission
A cold-hardy California cultivar that's handy both ways, good for table olives and for pressing oil.
Manzanillo
A rounded table olive that's grown all over and loved most of all for canning.
Frantoio
The go-to Italian oil cultivar that's behind loads of that lovely fruity olive oil.
Swan Hill
A nearly fruitless, low-pollen cultivar that's a smart pick where dropped fruit and allergens would be a pain.
Companions
How to propagate
Most olives get started from cuttings or grafts so the new tree matches its parent, since seedlings are slow and hardly ever come out true to type.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Late spring to summer · 2 to 3 months to root
If you want a copy of a named olive, cuttings are the dependable way to go, since they come out just like the parent. Take semi-hardwood cuttings anytime from late spring through summer, root them under mist with a bit of bottom heat, and they'll usually strike roots in around 2 to 3 months.
GraftingDemanding
Spring · One growing season
Grafting is more of a skilled-grower move, where you put a favorite cultivar onto a tough seedling or clonal rootstock. Do it in spring, and a graft that takes will join up and settle in over one growing season.
SeedDemanding
Fall · Several years to fruiting
Seed is slow and a bit of a gamble, and the seedlings won't match the parent, so it's mostly used to grow rootstock. Sow it in fall, and be ready to wait several years before a seed-grown tree fruits at all.
Myths
Olives can be picked and eaten straight off the tree.
Tempting, but no, raw olives are brutally bitter thanks to a compound called oleuropein. Before they're any good, you've got to cure them in brine, lye, or salt to draw all that bitterness out.
Olive trees never need cold weather.
They're sensitive to frost, sure, but here's the catch: they still need a spell of winter chill to flower and set fruit properly. If your winter stays too mild, you'll end up with a healthy tree and hardly any olives.