Olive Tree Growing Temperature
Olives are self fertile but if you decide to plant your tree outdoors you ll get a bigger harvest by planting another tree for cross pollination.
Olive tree growing temperature. Olive trees grow best in full sun and begin their growth period in late winter or early spring when daytime temperatures reach 70 f. The best optimal flower formation happens when daily temperatures in winter are as follows. Your tree probably won t set fruit indoors. It needs a drop in daytime and nighttime temperatures as well as about two months of temperatures below 50 degree f to stimulate flowering.
Temperatures of long duration in the mid teens can cause very serious damage to larger branches and trunks and the extent of the damage may not be evident for some time. You can find hardy olive trees in commerce that will thrive in usda zone 8. Zone 8 olive trees generally require that winter temperatures stay above 10 degrees f. Impact of freezing on olive tree flower formation.
There are varieties of cold hardy olive trees including zone 7 olive trees that thrive in regions you might not have expected to be olive friendly. To bloom trees need a 10 to 15 week period with nighttime. Winter nighttime temperatures fluctuate between 4 and 6 c. Winter daytime temperatures fluctuate between 15 and 19 c.
The olive tree olea europaea is a classic mediterranean tree that we might associate more with holidays than our own back garden however they make good street trees and garden trees in the uk with attractive pale green evergreen leaves slow growing habit and compact size. When you think about an olive tree you probably imagine it growing somewhere hot and dry like southern spain or greece these beautiful trees that produce such delicious fruits are not just for the hottest climates though. They also require some 300 to 1 000 hours of chill to bear fruit depending on the cultivar. Of course temperatures never stay at 7 c for exactly 300 or 600 hours.
The absolute maximum temperature can reach 104 f 40 c without causing damage but the minimum should not fall below 20 f 7 c. In italian regions where olive is grown winter is longer than winter in spain.