Olive trees can be propagated by taking semi-ripe cuttings in summer or hardwood cuttings in winter.
In water, olive tree cuttings won't take root. However, you can begin the process of propagating olive tree cuttings by soaking fresh olive tree cuttings for the first two to three days in a cup of water before moving them to a pot with potting soil.
First, select a healthy twig that is about the size of a pencil. Next, strip the leaves away from the lower 2/3 of the twig, then dip it in a rooting hormone mix. Finally, place the twig in dampened soil, and keep it watered. It will take two to three weeks for an olive branch to root and begin to develop.
Most olive cuttings will root three to four months, at which point the heating coil can be removed.
Timing is important. Hard pruning an olive tree in late winter or early spring will encourage a flush of new growth which defeats the purpose of the prune. It's better to give the hard prune when the tree has finished fruiting - at the end of autumn or in early winter.
Sever or hammer it to crack it 1/8 inch below a leaf node. Remove all the leaves except a few on top. Dip the cracked end in 0.2-percent IBA rooting hormone and gently tap to remove the extra. push the cutting into the hole in the moistened sand mixture and press the soil in tight around it.
Olive trees are primarily grown from cuttings but growing olive trees from pits or seeds is also possible. The pits need to be thoroughly cleaned and processed to break dormancy and facilitate germination.
Fertilise olive trees in early spring and late summer with a well-balanced fertiliser, such as Yates Dynamic Lifter Advanced For Fruit & Citrus or Osmocote Plus Organics Fruit & Citrus, which feeds the plant and enriches the soil, too.
The oldest known olive tree is 1500 years old, but the average life span is 500 years. Olive trees are loved for their fruits, eaten fresh or brined and pressed into oil. But not all olive trees bear olives.
It takes around three years to produce its first fruit. Once the first olives appear, the olive tree's productivity increases considerably. It produces fruit constantly, meaning that it is a very fertile variety.
Remove the lower leaves and insert the cut ends into a moist rooting media such as vermiculite, perlite or potting mix. Placing cuttings directly into water is not recommended because it deprives the developing roots of oxygen. The resulting root system is weak and spindly and does not adapt well to a soil environment.
Olive trees are very drought resistant; however, they still require water to survive. When establishing an olive tree, keep the soil moist, yet not saturated. Water an establishing olive tree once weekly for the first year or anytime the top 2” of soil becomes dry.
An olive tree has small, shallow roots, and if it's overwatered for too long these can rot away. Even if the tree does make it through in one piece, it might not be able to produce fruit again. If you live in a particularly rainy region, overwatering can occur without you manually watering your olive tree at all.
Olives planted close to a warm wall where they can bask in the sunshine will be the happiest. The olive tree is slow-growing and is therefore ideal for pot-growing; it will thrive in a large pot in a bright spot on the patio or balcony, or in an unheated conservatory or greenhouse.
Olive trees in pots take a long time to grow, especially if they are not repotted regularly. So, if you want your olive tree to grow quickly, repot it once a year in the beginning. Later, repot every 2 to 3 years into high-quality soil.
This can be hard work depending on the size of the tree. Fortunately the olive's roots are not large. Once the surface roots have been cut, slide the shovel under the root ball and sever any deeper roots. Some extra muscles from a mate will always help.
Olive trees take root easily.
The root system of the olive trees develops vertically until the third to fourth year of its life. Later on, the original root system is replaced by another flocculent root system, produced mainly by spheroblasts or conger, formed in the olive tree neck, just below the soil surface.
We advise watering newly planted olive trees every third day for the first two weeks. Then, cut back the watering to once weekly after the first two weeks. If you have a mature olive tree, in summer it will need watering every 3-5 Days if keeping in a pot.
Olive trees are a slow growing variety and don't require much attention when it comes to pruning. If you would like to do a bit of maintenance we would recommend pinching back some of the new growth. This will encourage the tree to send out new shoots and in turn, this will create a lovely bushy tree.