When and how to make olive cuttings?

Image - Wikimedia / H. Zell

The olive tree is a wonderful tree: it gives good shade once it matures, and as it ages its trunk becomes wide, with cracks. All this makes its ornamental value very high, since it is also easy to maintain as it resists drought better than many other species. And, as if that were not enough, it produces edible fruits: olives.

Perhaps for all these reasons there are more and more people who want to know when and how to make olive cuttings. For them, and also for you, this article goes. 🙂

When do you have to take the olive cuttings?

Image - Wikimedia / David Brühlmeier

El olive It is a plant that, unfortunately, does not multiply well by cuttings. They quickly become infected with fungi and die. For this reason, more than pieces of tree branches what you do is take the pacifiers (They are like the "suckers") that come out next to the trunk. When? Late winter, just before the tree resumes its growth.

Thus, it will be very easy to get a new specimen without having to sow its seeds (something that on the other hand is also very simple since you only have to fill a pot with universal cultivation substrate, water, sow the seeds and wait about 15 days to seedlings come out). Anyway, do not worry because we will explain how you have to proceed to achieve greater success with your cuttings.

How do you get them out?

Olive cuttings

The branches that Interested in taking are those that are about 60 centimeters long and about 1,5 centimeters thick. Once you have them, you must remove all the leaves and plant them in pots or directly in the ground.

Olive pacifiers

To get an olive pacifier what you do is, with the help of a hoe or, better, a screech (hoe), dig a couple of ditches around the pacifier that we want to remove, with a depth of 25-30cm. Later, carefully we will separate our future tree with some roots, and we will plant it in a pot of about 10,5cm in diameter with vermiculite previously watered.

For the best chance of success, we recommend using homemade rooting agents since this way, and keeping the substrate humid (but not flooded).

How long do olive cuttings take to root?

The cuttings and suckers, once they are planted in their respective pots, They will take about 3-4 weeks or so to emit new roots. You have to bear in mind that first of all, they must overcome the transplant, and the fact that now they can no longer receive food from the mother plant forces them to 'look for life' on their own.

For this reason, during the first month after planting in containers, you have to be very careful with watering, with the number of hours of light it gives them, with the microorganisms that can cause infections, etc.

What are the care they need?

Image - Wikimedia / Forest & Kim Starr

Now that everything is done, we need to take care of them. The care that both suckers and olive cuttings need are, basically, moderate watering, direct sun and a weekly or biweekly preventive treatment with sulfur or fungicide in order to prevent fungi from spoiling them.

It is very important to avoid waterlogging the soil or substrate, otherwise we will most likely lose them. If in doubt, check the soil moisture before watering it again, for example by inserting a thin wooden stick or, if they are in a container, weighing it right after watering and again after a few days.

Has it been useful to you?