Given our common passion with figs, I have always been curious about olives. I visited a friend in MA and she was growing container olives succesfully. I am aware of the tenderness and non hardness nature, drainage issues, humidity issues, etc.  Anyone try in mid Atlantic zone 7.?  I seen some blogs discuss this for eastern shore MD, but they still needed above 20 degree winters and full southern exporures. Given they way we fuss and care for figs, I have been seriously thinking why not?

I grow olives in containers, but I live in Florida.  I think your winter might be a little too cold, but if you have the flexibility to move them inside to a sunny location, it could work.  

I would put them in the ground, but I am renting where I am at right now.  I have a Kalamata and an unkown green.  I have them in some pretty large plastic containers that I bought at Wal Mart.  Neither has produced fruit yet.  I have read that especially in containers, it could take 5-6 years to produce fruit.  The fruit is a nice bonus, but I also just like they way they look.  I will try and post up some pics later. 

Jack,
I'm curious did they actually have fruit in Mass, did the entire flower to fruit process take place in Mass or did they receive the tree with fruit on it, and what was the variety? 
The reason is that I too was very interested in growing olives, given that i already grow many tropical fruit trees, most of which don't produce, and have successfully grown another mediterranean fruit (pomegranate) in upstate NY. 
The issue I encountered after a great deal of research came from a discussion with an olive expert at some Univ. in Calif.  He has presentations all over the internet and i contacted him and basically what he told me is that the conditions necessary for olives to flower and pollinate require a very specific window of temp during a specific time of year in early winter I think.  And so to reproduce those conditions to achieve bloom and pollination in NY he said would be near impossible unless you had some sort of climate controlled greenhouse room because they need a ton of sun, combined with like 50 degrees temps or something.  Sorry I kind of forgot the details but remember the gist.
If there's hope, I want to try it.  I actually was thinking about it recently.
Timmy

Just had a conversation about Olives with the folks at oregoneolives.com (also see oregonOlivetrees.com).  I was told that Zone 8 is about the limit for olives although they indicated the past few winters their low temps have been closer to zone 7 temps than zone 8.  Their thoughts were that selecting the most cold hardy varieties and growing them in containers and bringing them inside till the trunks are at least 1" in diameter before putting them in ground in zone 7 could work.  After that, even with protection, given a harsh winter, all could be lost.  Pretty sure I have frozen ours by waiting too late to bring them in but plan to start over with hardier varieties this spring.

I'd like to know more info too. I've been tossing that idea around for awhile but haven't really looked into it. Maggie (italiangirl74) grows olive trees in PA. Maybe she'll see this post and can give us some information as to whether she has gotten fruit from her trees.
Jon you need to make an Olive Forum. lol

I also grow 2 little Olivetrees. Although I wouldn't try to put them into the ground here in 7b Germany, the bigger one fruits since I got it and after thinning the fuit out, the olives also rippens to a dark blue colour. But only maybe 8 to 10 fuits I left on the tree. I would say they're are both 6 or 7 years old...This year I got no olives at all cause a storm took all the blooms away.

So I would say in a good summer it's possible to rippen olives in a 7b zone. You should give them a early start into the season with a greenhouse like I do. In may into a sunny, chilly spot.

Olives grow easily here (so Calif). Many people and businesses landscape with them. Many churches too. They are mostly grown decoratively and not for fruit.

If you try to grow them for the fruits, a process of some sort is needed to make them useful. If grown for oil, you'd need a lot of them, and access to someone who processes them to extract the oil. That is fun to experience, but very expensive. Unless you have a lot of olives, it costs more to extract the oil than it does to buy good olive oil for a year. That's not counting watering and pruning and insect control (olive fly maggot mainly), and other care of the trees. I know people who have planted mini orchards for the oil. I really don't see the point of doing it on a small scale. You do get good oil however, especially if you have planted good varieties. Even our local Home Depot was selling some nice varieties for oil.

If you want to harvest the fruits to process into eating olives, that's another task. There are a couple ways to cure olives, but most commonly you pick them when half ripe, soak them in lye and then flush them with many washes of water, then whatever the final solution they are put in. I've done that just for fun years ago. (and it was fun) But just once. I think you'd have to do it several times to get a really good end-product. There is probably better information available now than I was able to find.

I visited an olive orchard here in Texas about five years ago(Not the one mentioned below), bought two small trees in a one gallon container and planted them immediately in the ground. They are unprotected and managed to survive so far. They are slow growers due to the nature of the soil perhaps and I didn't do anything for them so far except watch them grow very slowly. So far no sign of fruit and regardless whether I get fruit or not, these are beautiful trees in my yard.

There is a relatively new high density olive orchard not far from my house. They planted 23,000 trees on 33 acres in a location that is not known for olives.  Their mix consists "of 17,000 Arbequina, 4,500 Koroneiki and 1,500 Arbosana trees." Arbequina their primary variety, does not need cross-pollination.

"Koroneiki: A Greek variety known for its anti-oxidant properties and light, fruity flavor. It produces small olives, but with greater yield. We are using Koroneiki trees as a cross-pollenator. The tree is of medium vigor with a spreading habit and an open canopy. The leaves are elliptic lanceolate; short and narrow. The fruit is small ovoid and slightly asymmetric. It ripens early and has high and constant yields with a very high content of oil. The Koroneiki variety is an early bearer which also flowers early and produces lots of pollen. They are often planted with Mastodies as a pollenizer.

• Arbequina: A Spanish variety that is prized for its high quality, buttery oil with a lightly peppered finish. It is a tree of medium vigor with a weeping shape. It has a crown of average size and produces a small amount of new wood each year. The leaves are elliptical lanceolate in shape and shiny dark green in color. The fruit is spherically symmetrical in shape, small in size (1.75 – 2.0 grams) with a rounded top. Fruit is black at maturation which occurs in mid season (the second half of November), but not all at once. The yield in oil is good (20 – 22%), of excellent quality with good organoleptic characteristics.

Arbosana: A Spanish variety that is small in stature with high yields. The yield in oil is very good (19-20%), and the oil has a unique fruity flavor. This variety is late maturing with high producing fruit with a tendency toward alternate bearing. Resistant to leaf drop and cold, this is a tree of lower vigor and high productivity leading to high density planting."


You can read about what they did here:

http://txolive.com/



Below are Photos of my two olive trees

excellant feedback folks. Yes, my friend had fruit on her trees in MA .  Many blogs on this topic, but the basic advice is in MD and VA its best to container them, unless one has a very protected southern sunny spot and winters above 20.

One day 3 years ago, while golfing, I noticed all these green olives on the trees.  HUGE ones.  So, we played about 3 rounds of golf, and I got tons of giant green olives!  Also many suckers from the trees.  I planted the suckers and two survived.  I have two olive trees in ground, and they haven't fruited yet, but when they do, I expect some nice harvests.  As Gina mentioned, almost everyone in Southern California has olive trees.  At the end of our street they line the corner.  They are big, fruit bearing olives, so they will be nice pollinators for mine.

Lye is used for the black olives.  Green ones are so easy.  Brine for many weeks, and keep changing the brine.  I also brine garlic, herbs and citrus slices and peel and add those into the ball jars when the red wine vinegar goes in for preserving the delicious olives.  They get better every year.  I keep them in a really dark cool place.

Zone envy is a terrible thing, and we all have it!  If I were you, living in a cold climate, I would try my best to container a couple olives!!  I did try blueberries in the heat, but it was too much work for one berry!  LOL!  And JD and I split the little thing!

Good luck!

Suzi

Are they as easy to propagate?  I didn't know you can grow them in a pot.   I love olives just the way you described with the garlic, herbs, and citrus. Anyone want to trade a green olive for a fig tree?

I have tried about 3 times to grow them from cuttings but with no success.

Have an Arbequina in ground here zone 8A...2 year tree and had to pinch off several blooms. Its a beautiful tree throughout the year. Great to have something green to look at in winter

Wow!  What a coincidence.  I was just looking at all the Olive sites, and contemplating trying to grow some Olive trees in NYC/7b.  I will grow them for ornamental purposes, and cannot envision waiting for enough fruit production to process my own Olives.  The Italian deli sells them.  Besides, I'm basically lazy and hate to do unnecessary work.  From what I have read, processing olives can be a huge PITA....and has to be done right, or the olives will spoil.

One day while driving in my neighborhood, I spotted an Olive tree planted in-ground, in a front yard, and I have also seen two Olive trees planted into 25 gallon containers.  I would suspect that the containerized trees might get moved into a warm, sunny area for the winter months.  I will keep my eye on the in-ground tree to see if it gets uprooted, and moved for the winter months.  EDIT:  12/5/13   The 4 ft. Olive tree is still planted in the ground, and we had some below freezing weather here in NYC.  I will continue the vigil.

I also read that "Mission" olives can survive down to 8-10 degrees.  I may send for some small trees and try them come next spring.  If they die, they die.  NYC sure ain't the sunny hills of Sicily....but, if I can grow figs, why not Olive trees?  I'll know the answer, next year.


Frank

Ok, so I can't resist posting on this thread. I recently made some really good "olives" from trees that grew in the ground here in Wisconsin. The trees are Cornus mas or Cornelian cherry. I harvested the fruits when they were almost ripe and had a little bit of a red blush. Then they went into a jar with some rosemary, garlic, a few bay leaves and some brine. They turned out really good and I didn't even have to change the salt water like when curing regular olives.

I wrote a blog post about one of my Cornus mas harvests here.... http://www.moonwiseherbs.com/cornus-mas-cornelian-cherry-dogwood/

Is anyone else growing Cornus mas? I'm currently looking for scions and will trade for my fig scions!

Yes, I'm obsessed with this plant :-)

Hi Little John,
I have 'Yellow' (Yantarnii), 'Red Star' (Vidubetskii), and 'Kazanluk'
They are only just starting to bear a few fruit.  Can't wait until they are pumping them out!  If you're interested in scions from any of those drop me a message.  I've been told grafting can be tricky?  Have you grafted C.mas and is there a best method you recommend?  What varieties of C.mas do you have?

Little John,
I just went to your link...haha...I've been to it before.  Guess I'm a bit obsessed with C.mas too!  I'm guessing the Bulgarian man you mentioned is the same guy who I bought my Kazanluk from.  I still need to get my hands on the Russian Giant cultivar!

Greg, email sent!

Manny, You might be missing a lot. If I were you I would pick them and pickle them with some salt water.

You can find a good recipe here:

http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/pickled_green_olives

Wash the olives well in lukewarm water.
Split each olive two or three times with a sharp fine knife or leave intact.
Place in a sterilized glass or earthenware container and cover with salted water, using 1/2 cup salt to every 4 pints (2.5 litres) of water.
Place a small plate on top to prevent olives floating on top of the solution.
Cover and leave to soak for 6-8 weeks, changing the salted water every week.
Make a brine by boiling together 1 cup salt to every 4 cups of water.
Allow to cool.
Drain the soaked olives and place in a sterilized glass or earthenware container with the lemon wedges and hot green pepper.
Cover with the cool brine, replace the plate and seal with an airtight lid.
Set aside for approx 6-8 weeks until the bitter taste disappears.
Read more at http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/pickled_green_olives#PzqD4287XAE4u4l4.99

SAS, thanks for the info.

Don't get me wrong i enjoy olives very much.  Years past I used to cure olives a couple different ways but it's still a lot of work.   Where I came from had lots of olive trees and we used to make our own olive oil.
We also used to cure olives by the barrel full for our own consumption.  What i was trying to say is most people around here don't harvest them and just go to waste. 

 Regards, Manny

 

Here is the olive that I've been growing for about a year and a half.   Started it from a 3' pot.   Maybe I'm wasting my time.  It is labeled Koroniki


  

Dan,

From what I've read on that website mentioned above,

"Koroneiki: A Greek variety known for its anti-oxidant properties and light, fruity flavor. It produces small olives, but with greater yield. We are using Koroneiki trees as a cross-pollenator. The tree is of medium vigor with a spreading habit and an open canopy. The leaves are elliptic lanceolate; short and narrow. The fruit is small ovoid and slightly asymmetric. It ripens early and has high and constant yields with a very high content of oil. The Koroneiki variety is an early bearer which also flowers early and produces lots of pollen. They are often planted with Mastodies as a pollenizer."

I've had my two trees outside in my yard for the past five years now. They are very slow growers but very beautiful trees. I'm not sure what varieties I have, but I know that they are different and one of them they call Mission.
I believe that you will need at least two trees for cross pollination if you're looking for fruit.
Last year I saw some large olive trees in 35 gallon containers being sold by Loews for about $120 per tree if I recall.
I was touched by Bass's story about the gentleman in Pennsylvania who planted a persimmon tree and did not see any results for 13 years and after his death the tree now carries a very heavy crop of persimmons.
Your challenge will be the weather. These trees are very sensitive to sharp and sudden fluctuation in temperature especially around the springtime.

I am growing Arbequina in a pot in zone 6. I have also read that they need good light but cool temps in winter to flower. I am able to put mine in my hoophouse that gets down to 40 degrees when it is cold - just above freezing. But, an unheated enclosed porch or even an unheated room with a window might work.