These graceful trees are wind, salt and frost-hardy and will grow almost anywhere in New Zealand. They are not that fussy of the soil they are to be grown in, but prefer a well-prepared hole with lots of compost, especially if heavy clay soil is where they are to be grown. Olives are highly-ornamental trees, as well as good fruit producers. They are very tolerant but do best in a sheltered position. It is important that your Olive does not dry out when the fruit is developing, and they do well with an annual application of general slow-release fertilizer. One tree can provide up to 30kg of fruit.
Size matters when it comes to deciding what variety you are going to grow. For pickling, large olives are a better choice. If you are going to press your olives for oil, size is not so important. How much oil they contain as a percentage is more important. You can still pickle 'oil' olives - all going well, they will taste great. Just understand they may be smaller, so there is less flesh relative to stone than with a larger pickling olive.
A lot of the olive varieties need to be pollinated with a different variety. Olives pollinate by wind from trees located within 20–30 meters so it is ideal to plant at least one other variety as a pollinator.
Here are a few of the varieties that are more commonly available:
Ascolano