Olive Tree Olea Europaea Care
For bonsai you can use cultivated varieties but the wild olive bonsai olea europaea sylvestris has the advantage of very tiny leaves and short internodes.
Olive tree olea europaea care. Minimum of four years before bearing fruit. Large plants can be hardy to around 15c and lower as long as the compost soil is well drained. Europaea is an amiable and drought tolerant companion to add shade a hot dry garden to cool off and protect many generations of your family. The basin will help hold any rain or water from your hose so it sinks into the ground and reaches the roots.
Use a soaker hose or drip irrigation or form some soil into a rim around the planting hole to make a basin. Prune container grown plants more aggressively to keep in check. In the uk olive trees perform well in the milder microclimates which to generalise are southern and western regions coastal areas and urban locations. Pruning generally results in poorer olive harvests.
Olive trees are surprisingly very hardy. Water regularly but sparingly during growing season. With an exceptionally long life span 1 500 years says arthur lee jacobson author of north american landscape trees and a mature height of nearly 100 feet o. There is normally no need to water olive trees during the winter only make sure the root ball does not dry out.
Olive fruits are edible after they are watered and kept in brine for some time but most of them are used for producing olive oil. Other fruitless olive tree care includes a feeding of high nitrogen fertilizer in spring while the tree is young. Add drip irrigation if convenient as the root system will need almost daily watering for some time. Mature plants will be evergreen to around this temperature younger plants are more susceptible to leaf loss if the temperatures are continually very low.
Olive plants will probably not bear fruit if not growing in non mediterranean like climates. Winter care open close. The olive tree olea europaea is instantly recognisable as the quintessential mediterranean tree and stands as the archetypal sentinel of warm sunny climes. It is then perhaps surprising that the olive tree is an adaptable and hardy plant suitable for growing in a wide range of climates.
Do not overwater olives are fairly drought tolerant plants. If water does not drain quickly root rot is a potential problem.