Olive

Tree facts

Scientific name

Olea europaea

Origin

Mediterranean Basin

Tree size

20–30 ft; easily kept at 10–15 ft; Arbequina stays smaller

Growth rate

Slow to medium

Sun

Full sun

Soil

Well-drained soil, even poor or rocky. Dies in waterlogged ground.

Soil pH

6.0–8.0

Pollination

Wind-pollinated; many are partly self-fertile, and a second cultivar increases crops

Cold hardiness

Mature trees take about 15–20°F; young trees and fruit are hurt in the mid-20s

USDA zones

8b–10

Years to first fruit

3–5

Season

Sep–Dec

Water

About every 14 days once established, without rain; more in heat, in pots and while young

Feeding

About every 120 days, Feb–Jun

Pruning

Mar–Apr

Taste

Raw olives are intensely bitter. Cured, they're savory, fruity and salty, from buttery to sharp

Nutrition

Monounsaturated fat (oleic acid), vitamin E and polyphenols; cured olives are high in salt

Is olive safe to eat? Edible and toxic parts

What you can eat

• Cured fruit (never raw)
• Pressed oil
• Leaves, dried for tea

Toxic parts and cautions

• Take care: Raw olives are inedibly bitter from oleuropein and must be cured first. They can be soaked in water (changed daily) or brine for weeks to months, dry-salted, or soaked briefly in a lye (sodium hydroxide) solution, then rinsed and brined. Follow a tested recipe: lye burns skin and eyes, and badly cured olives stored in oil or home-canned can carry botulism.
• Good to know: Olive pollen is a major spring allergy trigger where many trees grow.

Pets: Olive trees aren't toxic to pets. Plain cured olives are fine for dogs in small amounts but are salty, and the pits can choke or block the gut.

How to eat and enjoy olive

• Brine-cured green or black table olives
• Homemade olive oil from a larger harvest
• Tapenade
• Marinated olives with citrus peel and herbs
• Muffuletta olive salad (New Orleans)
• Olive bread

Olive varieties (9)

• Arbequina

  A small-fruited, compact Spanish olive that makes fruity, mild oil and starts bearing young.

  Origin: Spain (Catalonia) · Taste: Mild, buttery, fruity oil · Season: Sep–Nov · Size: Small

  Self-fertile and needs relatively little winter chill, making it the top choice for Florida and Georgia.

• Arbosana

  A compact, productive Spanish oil olive with aromatic, slightly bitter oil, often planted alongside Arbequina.

  Origin: Spain (Catalonia) · Taste: Aromatic, slightly bitter oil · Size: Small

  Ripens later than Arbequina.

• Frantoio

  The backbone of Tuscan olive oil, with fruity, peppery oil.

  Origin: Italy (Tuscany) · Taste: Fruity, peppery oil · Size: Medium

  Self-fertile; somewhat cold-sensitive.

• Kalamata · also Kalamon

  Greece's famous almond-shaped, purple-black table olive, usually cured in brine and vinegar.

  Origin: Greece (Peloponnese) · Taste: Rich, fruity, winey when cured · Season: Oct–Dec · Size: Medium to large

  Grows into a large tree and needs a long warm season.

• Koroneiki

  A Greek oil olive with tiny fruit and robust, peppery oil high in polyphenols.

  Origin: Greece · Taste: Peppery, green, robust oil · Season: Oct–Dec · Size: Very small

  Self-fertile; handles heat and drought well and is widely planted in the Southeast.

• Leccino

  A hardy Tuscan oil olive with mild, smooth oil, often grown with Frantoio.

  Origin: Italy (Tuscany) · Taste: Mild, smooth oil · Size: Medium

  Needs a pollinizer such as Pendolino or Frantoio. Takes cold better than many olives.

• Manzanilla · also Manzanillo

  The classic Spanish green table olive: large, round and meaty, also cured black.

  Origin: Spain (Seville) · Taste: Meaty, mild when cured · Season: Sep–Oct · Size: Large

  Partly self-fertile; crops better with Mission or another cultivar nearby. Fairly cold-tender.

• Mission

  California's original olive, used for both oil and black table olives.

  Origin: California, from Spanish mission plantings · Taste: Rich, mild · Season: Oct–Dec · Size: Medium

  One of the more cold-hardy olives; a tall, upright tree.

• Picual

  The world's most planted oil olive, with robust, grassy oil that keeps well.

  Origin: Spain (Andalusia) · Taste: Robust, grassy oil · Size: Medium

  Vigorous and fairly cold-tolerant.

Pests and diseases to watch for

• Scale insects

  Small bumps, waxy or shell-like, on stems and leaf veins; sticky honeydew and black sooty mold below.

  What to do: Scrub small colonies off with a soft brush.

• Mealybugs

  White cottony clusters in leaf joints, under leaves and on fruit stems; honeydew and sooty mold.

  What to do: Blast off with a strong spray of water.

• Aphids

  Clusters of tiny soft insects on new shoots; leaves curl and get sticky.

  What to do: Spray off with water.

• Sooty mold

  Black, papery film on leaves and fruit that wipes off; it grows on honeydew.

  What to do: Control the insects making honeydew; the mold then weathers away.

• Spider mites

  Fine pale speckling on leaves, dusty undersides and fine webbing; leaves bronze and drop.

  What to do: Hose the undersides of leaves.