Olives grow well in a sunny courtyard or balcony. Plant into a large tub with top grade potting mix. You can grow olive informally as a shrub, or trained flat onto a screen as an espalier.
Olive grows as an attractive evergreen, silvery foliaged tree. Highly drought and frost tolerant, this hardy tree is long living. The olive is valued for fruit and oil. It needs good drainage and water, particularly during flowering, fruit set and as fruit develops. In cooler climates, position your olive near a north or west heat-retaining brick wall. Feed with citrus food spring and autumn. Olives ripen in autumn. For pickling, harvest when light green or later when black.
Manzanillo is one of Spain's finest varieties. It is also the most widely planted variety in Australian groves and, due to its productivity and high quality fruit, the most widespread variety in the world. The variety has been well proven in groves and research stations in many Australian states.
The flesh is an excellent texture and it is considered a 'free-stone' olive as the seed is very easy to remove. This attribute makes it highly sought after by the processors of pitted and stuffed olives. The fruit is apple-shaped, light green-coloured and spotted with tiny whitish dots. They mature to a black colour with a hint of purple and are a medium size at 4.8g.
The tree has a low, spreading habit and while it is similar to many olives in that it can grow up to ten metres tall, most Manzanillo trees are best kept at five metres for ease of management and harvesting.
With normal cultural care Manzanillo is a regular annual bearer with the fruit maturing early in the season. It fruits well even in warm winter areas with little or no frost. Trials by Department of Agriculture - Mildura found Manzanillo to be the heaviest cropper of the 14 varieties tested.
Manzanillo table fruit and oil are well accepted on both the Australian and international markets. It is considered by many to be the best dual purpose variety available.
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