olive produce on Olea europaea tree and are the yield of thesesmall , evergreen plant trees . Olive trees can exist for century and have been cultivate for thousands of years for food for thought and oil , which was once used to light the lamp of ancient peoples . Today , olives produce in much the same ways as always , on Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , bloom in spring and producing a crop of European olive tree yield , harvested in the fall .
Climates Where Olive Trees Grow
Olea europaea trees flourish in warm , Mediterranean , USDA plant hardiness clime zone 10 and 11 , although there are some extra - hardy varieties which can grow in zone 8 and 9 . The favorite clime for olive trees is an domain with a strong and rainless summer and a besotted and soft wintertime season without heavy frost .
temperature below 22ºF ( -5ºC ) kill foliage , small branch , and branchlet of Olea europaea trees , and when the thermometer drops to 15ºF ( -10ºC ) , the entire Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is probable to die .
Even though olive tree can not brook hard freezing , these evergreen plant trees still call for a geological period of cold weather between 35º to 59ºF ( 1.6º to 15ºC ) for produce flower bud . Unless they obtain this chill period , the trees will not produce flowers and olive yield .
The Annual Life Cycle of an Olive Tree
As temperature warm and day hour lengthen in spring , Olea europaea trees burst out in buds growing from the leaf axil . These buds then go on to develop either into bunch of little , white and yellow flowers , which become fruit , or they grow out into shoot and new leaves .
Most change of olive Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are self - fertile and do n’t require cross - pollenation to set yield , but there are exclusion . Pollinated peak grow and swell , turn into the European olive tree we jazz to eat on pizzas and salads .
All olives start out immature and eventually reverse black . Green olives we eat are picked early in the season , and black olives are picked subsequently or are grow black during the cure outgrowth . Generally , olives for eating are glean in nightfall , and olives harvested for olive oil are leave behind to ripen fully on the tree until wintertime beforepicking .
Some Cold Hardy Olive Varieties
While most cultivar of Olea europaea like the strong temperatures of zones 10 and 11 , these are some which can be grown in zones 8 and 9 and still develop yield . These admit :
you may also sample growing anindoor olive treeas a potted sign of the zodiac plant . But , indoor trees commonly do n’t set fruit , and they still need lot of sun and warm temperatures to farm .
Some people have succeeder growing olive trees using the bonsai method acting . Bonsai is a growing proficiency and graphics form developed in Japan for cultivation of a miniature version of a tree that looks like a full - grown tree .
