How to prune olive tree? Olives are pruned in late spring or early summer. Olive trees are really hardy and don’t suffer from die back so you can prune them anywhere, however there’s a few tips you want to follow. First, we want to prune anything that is dead or weak and also any crossing branches that could rub and cause disease. Every cut that you make is going to produce two to three new shoots from the cutting point think about that when shaping the tree. You can prune by around two thirds i