The Potted Olive Tree

Growing olive trees are a popular favorite with interior decorators such as the
This long-living evergreen tree was first cultivated in ancient Israel. Arbequina olive trees are self-fruiting trees that have an enchanting gnarly appearance. The tree’s beauty has been extolled for thousands of years.

Arbequinas olive tree is typically small with weeping branches and is best grown in loamy soils in a well-draining pot.
Choose pots for olive trees that are well-draining with drainage holes, never allow trees to sit in standing water as this will cause root rot.
We do not recommend pots larger than 10 gallons when planting olive trees. Pots can become very heavy and watering could become hard to manage in larger pots.

Add soil to the new pot. Before removing the tree from the old container inspect the top of the soil in the old pot. The soil you can see on top is your soil line.
Never break up the soil line and never add soil above the soil line.
Carefully remove the tree from the pot and set the tree in the new pot on top of the new soil, if the tree's soil line is not an inch below the rim of the pot then remove the tree and add or remove soil.
Never add soil from the top, the soil must always be added from the bottom.
Once the tree is in the pot add soil to the sides of the pot until the soil is built up to meet the topsoil of the tree.

Over the course of time you may notice that the tree's soil line has slowly settled down into the pot, this happens after watering over time as some soil will get washed out and an empty space is created between the rim and the soil line.
You do not want to ignore a large space between the rim and the soil line, this space can be utilized for the root system of the tree so all the space in the pot is being used for the root system. In this event, you would remove the tree and add more soil, and then re-pot.

We recommend using a moisture meter to avoid over-watering.
The Arbequina is semi-deciduous, meaning they can experience some leaf drop in the winter indoors. It is best to place them near a sunny window away from heat vents.
The tree needs full sun for at least 6 hours daily, or it will drop foliage.

We hope you enjoy your potted olive tree for many years.