Description
(Olea europaea ‘Picual’)
The Picual is a popular cultivar of Spanish olive that is used for a good majority of oil commercial olive oil production worldwide. The tree is adaptable and tolerant of cooler weather and drought, as with many other olive varieties.
Its ideal climate and growing conditions would be Mediterranean-like, but thankfully, this is easy enough to replicate in a good portion of Australia. It can be happy planted in the ground, or in large pots, as long as the main focus is to provide good drainage.
Picual trees have a smaller, deep green leaf with a silvery underside that looks pretty spectacular in a breeze, as it gives off an attractive shimmer effect. These pretty leaves are accompanied by a nice, naturally dense growth habit that makes Picual a favourite in the garden for both looks and its fruit production.
The olives can be used for both pickling, and oil production. If pickling, they can be harvested when green or when they’re fully ripe and much darker. The oil is of particular note for this variety, however.
While the fruit isn’t the largest, it has a remarkably high yield (about 25%) of oil, which is rather impressive. For this reason, Picual is the preferred oil cultivar in its origin country of Spain.
Picual is self-fertile, but would certainly benefit from having other olive varieties nearby as this can sometimes promote earlier fruiting or more plentiful crops.
That said, like other olive varieties, Picual will start providing decent size crops only when its a bit more mature, roughly around 8 – 10 years of age.
