Are Olive Trees Fast Growing to Full Maturity?

Olives are cultivated in many areas of the world such as Australia, South Africa, California, Chile, Oregon, and Peru as well as New Zealand which has a temperate climate. As the name suggests, olive oil comes from the olive tree and is better known as mums. This plant with the Latin name Olea europaea is a plant that has a perennial green color that is much-loved by the public. Especially olive oil.

Olive trees can grow to between 10 and 40 feet tall and olive trees are exceptionally tough subtropical evergreens because when compared to other plants the wood is rot resistant and new stems can grow from the roots if the top of the tree dies.

Popular varieties of olive trees

• Green Castelvetrano variety has a slightly sweet taste
• Cerignola Olives
• Picholine Olives
• Kalamata Olives
• Moroccan Olives

Olive trees are able to grow in areas with hot and cold weather. While mild cold temperatures such as ice can affect its growth. Planting olive trees requires good soil conditions, as well as when deciding to plant them in pots. It’s just that they won’t thrive in places where winter temperatures are below 15 degrees F.

Olive Tree Care

After planting an olive tree, don’t let it grow without care. See how to care for plants to thrive for more details. Especially for olive trees, pay attention to the following care.

First, in a day make sure to water the olive tree once and try to do it in the afternoon. Need to know if the olive tree is able to survive in the hot sun and is able to adapt to any weather. If the age has reached 30 days, give olive fertilizer back to replace the nutrients that have been lost previously.

The fertilizer that can be given can be in the form of leaf NPK or it can also be manure with a dose of only one fist. As for the time of fertilization can be done only once every 3 to 6 months.

Although growth is relatively slow, you can prune olive trees every year once the branches have started to get long and unnecessary.

Well, that’s an easy way to grow olive trees easily. Who knows, you can succeed in having a quality olive tree that thrives and has the potential to be a profitable business

Are Olive Trees Fast Growing?

One of the disadvantages of olive trees is that they grow quite slowly to mature. Its growth slows down after the first few years of its life, where the olive tree will grow rather quickly in the first year of its life.

If you want to grow olives to produce fruit, during the first five years to make the main stems erect and straight, pruning can be done carefully. This method can help their growth faster.

Generally people are more attracted to the ornamental value in olive trees by allowing the tree to grow naturally, so that the olive tree will wrinkle which is characteristic of trees that grow in the Middle East and Greece.

How Long Do Olive Trees Take to Produce Fruit?

Olives have many varieties that produce different fruit sizes, shapes, colors and flavors. To produce the first fruit usually an olive tree must reach the age of about five but it depends on the cultivar, the care given and the origin of the olive tree from seeds or cuttings.

Olive trees begin to bear fruit in their fifth year and usually with good care will produce full fruit within seven to eight years after planting. But to achieve stable yields, slow growing trees take 65 to 80. Well, keep in mind that olives are hardy in US Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 to 10.

Olive varieties that produce fruit early

You can get fruit faster if you choose the right cultivar firmly in USDA zones 8-10. For example as follows:

• Olea europaea “Rubra” can begin to bear fruit in the second year,
• Koroneiki and Arbequina will bear fruit earlier, about three years after planting when compared to other varieties. Where in general it will take five to 12 years to bear fruit

Koroneiki is a type of olive that is grown in Greece for oil production. While Arbequina is usually used with agricultural methods.

So, what will happen if pruning is done on olive trees?

Indeed olive tree grows very slowly. So, pruning is rarely done, however, if you plant it in a pot sometimes its growth is much faster. You can trim the branches that are not necessary to support its growth.

You may think that pruning will make it more interesting when you see it formed, but as explained above that if you are going to do pruning, do it carefully. Annual pruning is necessary to help prevent problems where the tree would normally bear the weight in its first year and to obtain abundant yields in the future.

You can cut saplings when they are about 3 feet tall to have three to five scaffold branches. Pruning is best done between autumn harvest and spring flowering. Generally, the fruit of olive tree is never produced twice in the same place.

Keep in mind that if young olive trees lack water, this will affect the fruiting time to be slow, it can even result in no fruit at all. Most people will grow olive trees in pots because it is arguably easier but olive trees in containers are very susceptible to drought and this should be avoided because they like soil that is moist but not wet to prevent root rot.

Trees need to be watered for abundant fruit production on a regular basis although olives tolerate prolonged drought once established. When winter comes, keep the tree in a winter-proof container indoors in cold temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures below 50 F take olive trees about two months if you want them to flower.

There is another thing you need to remember. “Make sure there is a pollinator close to a different cultivar to the olive tree you have if the tree does not produce fruit at the expected time as olives require cross pollination to produce fruit”.