Olives in New Zealand
Olive trees arrived with European settlers in the 1830s, and the modern industry began in the 1990s. Olives New Zealand counts about 300,000 productive trees across 300 groves, grown in Northland, Auckland, Waiheke Island, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Kāpiti, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury and Central Otago.
Frantoio, Leccino, Koroneiki and Barnea are the most common varieties here. How big a tree gets, and how well it fruits, depends on its environment, Olives New Zealand says, so a sheltered backyard olive and one on an exposed block can end up very different.
Pruning a backyard olive from the ground
Choose your season
Commercial trees are usually pruned in spring, according to Olives New Zealand. It's a reasonable guide for a garden tree as well.
Open up the middle
Take out crossing, crowded and inward-growing branches. Olives New Zealand says an open canopy lets airflow and sunlight help with disease management and ripening.
Cut back to a junction
Use secateurs, loppers or a pruning saw, and cut back to a side branch or the trunk without leaving stubs.
Stay within reach
Stop at what you can reach with both feet on the ground. Anything higher, or a branch too thick for a pruning saw, is arborist work.
Clear the prunings
Rake up cuttings and fallen leaves, which can help keep fungal disease down.
Disease, fruit and mess
Olives New Zealand says fungal diseases such as peacock spot, cercospora and anthracnose are the biggest challenges for New Zealand growers. Spotted leaves that yellow and drop early, or fruit that rots on the tree, are a reason to get advice before cutting more off.
The harvest typically runs from mid-March to mid-July. A tree over a path, a deck or a driveway drops fruit through that stretch, and crushed olives stain, so pick or net them if that matters to you.
The African olive is a different plant
The African olive (Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata) is a dense, bushy shrub or small tree to about 7 m, naturalised on mainland New Zealand since 1961, NZPCN says. It's a different subspecies from the fruiting olive. If you're not sure which you have, an arborist or a good local nursery can tell you.
Big old olives, groves and consent
An old olive can become a sizeable, characterful tree that's worth keeping. If you're thinking of removing one, check your council's district plan first and have an arborist assess it; the tree rules by council page is a good place to start.
A grove on a lifestyle block is a bigger job again, with height reduction and access to plan. That's work for an arborist, and our tree pruning page explains what's involved.
What's yours, and what isn't
You can
- Light spring pruning you can reach from the ground.
- Raking up prunings, leaves and fallen fruit.
- Netting or picking fruit over paths and decks.
- Watching for spotted, yellowing leaves.
Leave to an arborist
- Reducing the height of a tall olive.
- Big branches over the roof or a neighbour's section.
- A whole grove on a lifestyle block.
- Removal, or advice before moving a big tree.
Olive tree care and pruning: what to do next
We'd prune a garden olive a little each spring rather than hard every few years, and keep it to a height we could reach from the ground. If the leaves were spotting and dropping, we'd get advice before taking more off. For a whole grove, or a tree that's got away from us, we'd bring in an arborist.
Want an arborist to look at it?
Tell us the job and your postcode, and a local arborist calls you to talk it through.