Olives are easy to care for, very robust, look very gnarled and atmospheric - especially when they are a few decades old - and with good care they even produce fruit. All of these reasons motivate many people in Germany to keep one or more olive trees in the garden or in a bucket. But are olives also suitable for keeping indoors?

Olives should be outside throughout the summer

Unfortunately, this question has to be answered in the negative, because olive trees need a lot of light and air in summer. They are real "outdoor trees" that usually wither away indoors due to a lack of light. Although olive trees should be kept in pots, they should be placed outdoors as soon as frosty nights or periods of frost are no longer to be expected. In addition, the Mediterranean plants need a resting phase in winter, in which they can hibernate at around eight to a maximum of ten degrees - if possible, wrapped up frost-proof, outdoors, for example on a house wall.

Do not keep olives in the warm all year round

Olives do not tolerate being kept indoors in warm temperatures all year round. If it is not hibernated incorrectly, the tree often sheds many or all of its leaves and can even dry up. There is also a greatly increased risk that indoor olives kept indoors will become infected with pests (e.g. scale insects) or fungi. Such damage occurs in particular in weakened plants. Furthermore, room olives often grow even more slowly than the plant does anyway, do not flower or only slightly and also do not develop any fruit.

Optimal conditions for olives

Instead of indoors, you should keep your olive tree in a bucket, but still in a sheltered outdoor location for as long as possible. This can be a sunny balcony - a south-facing balcony is ideal - but also a terrace or a small garden. In winter you can bring the olive tree into the apartment or house, but only hibernate in a cool and bright location. A heated living room, for example, is not suitable, but a bedroom or stairwell that is hardly or not very heated is more suitable. Be sure to choose a location that is as sunny as possible, even in winter. The actually evergreen tree responds to a lack of light by shedding its leaves.

tips and tricks

If you have fallen in love with the striking 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.

Category:

Trees