Frantoio Olive Tree for Sale

If you are serious about olive oil, Frantoio is the variety you want. Native to the hills of Tuscany in central Italy, Frantoio is the foundation of some of the world's finest extra virgin olive oil — a variety that has been cultivated for over a thousand years and remains the gold standard against which other olive oil varieties are measured. It is also one of the most widely planted olive varieties in South Africa's growing olive industry.

The tree is as beautiful as it is productive: a classic silvery-leaved Mediterranean evergreen with a graceful, dense canopy that looks at home in formal gardens, informal landscapes and container planting alike. It is long-lived (olives can live for centuries), drought-tolerant once established, and requires very little ongoing maintenance beyond an annual light prune and occasional watering.

For home olive oil production, Frantoio's very high oil yield and superb oil quality make it the obvious choice. The oil has a characteristically robust, peppery, intensely olivey flavour that is the hallmark of great Tuscan-style extra virgin olive oil. For table olives, the fruit is harvested green for a firmer, more bitter result or left to full black ripeness for a milder flavour.

For best fruit production, plant alongside another olive variety — Frantoio is partially self-fertile but produces significantly more fruit with a cross-pollinator nearby.