Cold-hardy olive experimentation

Hi folks,
I'm living up here in the US Southwestern High Desert, zone 7b, just doing some thinking about olives. There are rumors of cold hardy varieties like Arbequina surviving in various courtyards, patios, and sunrooms in our city but I have yet to find any of the reported in-ground specimens. I like experimenting and zone pushing, however, so I wanted to ask this community- does anyone have a good source for seed from a variety growing in Zone 8? Hoping that if I plant tons in a favorable, sheltered area then I can eventually find one that can tolerate our zone 7 conditions with some cover. It seems like a wonderfully climate-ready plant if we can get it through the winter!

I planted Arbequina at my homestead, at 4600 feet, and it has survived winter cold at what appears to be zone 6.  I've never seen the temperature go down below 10-15F, but other trees like Persimmon appear to behave like it is zone 6b here.

It took a long time to start to fruit.  I was thinking about digging it up and planting something else, but I guess the tree heard me, so starting producing olives.

Hi Alder,

I was growing Manzanilla and Picual olives. I had 8 trees in 2015, but after winter 2016/2017 and too much water in the spot where they were growing, only two survived. Picual was destroyed by the heat of the fire that we had here in June 2022. It's regrowing from the roots. Manzanilla is quite big - 2.5 m tall, but the fruit set is disappointing. I was expecting to see hundreds of olives after 1000 mm of rain I got this year, I saw lots of flowers, I have bees but now I can see maybe 40 fruits and they a re very small. I think my climate is too cold for olive cultivation, I always have cool nights, almost never warmer than 70 F and in winter I have at least 30-50 freezes. Days are typical 95-100 F. It's also possible that I need another tree for pollination help.

I'm in 8B zone according to my measurements, but I would not be shocked if one day I would measure 5-10 F that would put me into 7B, because my local valley is a perfect example of temperature inversion.

I would like to try Cornicabra. It was developed in Toledo, Spain and Toledo has similar temperature extremes as my location. I get little bit more rain and sun.

I had luck with Arbequina surviving unprotected in an area of western Washington that was probably zone 7b. It's worth a shot but with some protection and consideration

People are growing it, and others, in this region with success. Our winters are fairly long though relatively mild compared to colder zones

Wow, I had no idea that folks were seeing success in ground with Arbequina! Gives me hope for our own ability to grow them. For the folks that have responded, have you been giving them special winter treatment of some kind?

I recommend a breathable row cover draped over it (if you can find the material in a square form) and Christmas lights (non-LED, so they make heat) That's what people do here with citrus, for example.