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Watering replanted olive tree

amy_hamiltonamy_hamilton Posts: 32
in Problem solving
Good morning! We have quite a mature olive which we had to move a fortnight ago. It's always been planted in its 100l pot with drainage holes for about 5 years. We moved and repositioned it. The soil is clay which I know is less than ideal. We had to severe some of the big roots to get it out but generally we kept a root that spread approximate to the circumference of the canopy. We dug a hole twice as wide as the 100l pot and replanted on pea gravel for drainage with a mixture of soil from the transplant site, new compost of fungi root boost stuff. We covered in mulch and built up a basin.

We are two weeks since the transplant and have been watering with a trickle from a hose pipe once a day for about an hour. 

My concern is are we watering too much (we have no rain currently and it's warm but the surrounding soil is clay). The tree is coping relatively well, but is having a fair bit of leaf drop with leaves turing yellow with black spots. 

Does anyone have any advice on how to look after it going forward? Really don't want to over/under water. Difficult to get it right! 

Many thanks in advance
Amy

Posts

  • amy_hamiltonamy_hamilton Posts: 32

  • amy_hamiltonamy_hamilton Posts: 32

  • amy_hamiltonamy_hamilton Posts: 32
    edited May 2020
    The first image is from when we were digging up (the excess water there was just to try and reveal the roots). Second photo is new position.

    The first post should have read *we kept a root spread approximate to the circumference of the canopy. There were about 5 big root systems branching out from the drainage holes that we saved
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Sounds as if you prepared the ground well, but it will have had a shock and will take some time to settle into it’s new home. The leaf drop is a natural sign of stress from the move and having it’s root severed, although it will drop some leaves normally anyway. Did you plant it at the same level as the pot? It looks as if the mulch around it may be a little too high, so I would draw that back from the trunk in a circle all around so you can see the original soil line on the trunk. A good deep water, two or three bucketfuls twice a week is better than a daily trickle which may not be giving it as much water as you think. Olives grow on poor, stony clay here, but on raised berms or sloping fields to help drainage, so your slope is a good thing - although it does mean deep watering is tricky as a lot will run off! Farmers do trickle irrigate here, but for far longer, even overnight. Maybe try the hour trickle to wet the ground then a couple of buckets of water, which will help it soak down into the roots.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • amy_hamiltonamy_hamilton Posts: 32
    Thank you so much Nollie, that is really helpful advice and also reassuring! 

    So itoit seems you think water a little more if anything. 

    Thank you once again
  • Ruth S. SainzRuth S. Sainz Posts: 8
    Amy, I'm Spanish based in Spain, I live in the centre a bit different landscape from Nollie but we do have olive trees in the streets also, and as Nollie advices I would water longer, but less, that is twice a week should be enough. This first year, the next years leave it to the rain. We sometimes don't have any rain for 2 months during summer and our olive trees look perfectly happy.
  • amy_hamiltonamy_hamilton Posts: 32
    Thank you Ruth, sound advice. Much appreciated 
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