Content
- Olives need light and air
- Olives should be outside during the summer
- Do not keep olives warm all year round
- Optimal conditions for olives
- Tips & Tricks
Olives need light and air
Olives are easy to clean, very robust, look - especially if they are already a few decades old - very gnarly-atmospheric and deliver with good care even fruits. All of these reasons cause many people in Germany to keep one or more olive trees in the garden or in the tub. But are olives also suitable for the housing?
Olives should be outside during the summer
Unfortunately this question has to be answered in the negative, because olive trees need a lot of light and air in summer. These are real "outdoor trees", which are mostly lost indoors due to lack of light. Olive trees should be kept in the bucket, but put into the open as soon as no frosty nights or frost periods are to be expected. In addition, the Mediterranean plants need a rest period in winter, in which they can hibernate at about eight to a maximum of ten degrees - if possible, packed frost-resistant, outdoors, such as on a wall.
Do not keep olives warm all year round
Olives do not like being kept indoors in warm temperatures year round. With a wrong hibernation the tree often throws off many or even all leaves, and can even dry up. In addition, there is a greatly increased risk that an in-house carpentry infected with pests (eg, scale insects) or fungi. Such damage occurs especially in weakened plants. Furthermore, room olives often grow even slower than the plant does anyway, does not flourish or grows little and also does not develop fruit.
Optimal conditions for olives
Instead of in the room you should put your olive tree in a bucket, but nevertheless too long as possible to a protected location in the open air. This can be a sunny balcony - optimally a south facing balcony - but also a terrace or a small garden. In winter, you can pick the olive tree in the apartment or in the house, but only overwinter in a cool and bright location. For example, the heated living room is not suitable, but a barely or little heated bedroom or stairwell is more likely. Make sure you have a sunny spot, even in winter. Lack of light acknowledges the actually evergreen tree with a dropping of its leaves.
Tips & Tricks
If you have fallen in love with the distinctive appearance of an olive and would like to have such a tree in your living room, then you can alternatively opt for a Ficus macrocarpa. The distinctive large-leaved fig has a spreading, evergreen crown and a very gnarled trunk.