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Leggy Olive

SmudgesDadSmudgesDad Posts: 61
in Problem solving

I’ve got an olive that I’ve allowed to get way too leggy. If you look closely at the photo you can see some young shoots much further down the tree. Do you think I could cut back to these shoots in the hope the olive will regenerate or is there some other way of saving it?
The tree is just over 2 metres tall.
Thanks.

Posts

  • diggersjodiggersjo Posts: 172
    What is it for, to look at or grow olives? It looks like it is lacking light and needs a bit of a prune (whoops wrong thread). 
    Yorkshire, ex Italy and North East coast. Growing too old for it!
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Is it possible it’s not getting enough light in the corner there, so has grown up reaching for it? They do like a sunny position.

    Yes you can go pretty hard when pruning, but try and retain some of the open, branching shape otherwise you might wind up with a load of water shoots growing straight up from short stumps. I do lop chunks off mine anytime throughout the growing season when they get boisterous but would probably leave any major rejuvenation pruning until early Spring (which would be February for me) and would start by reducing the top growth by no more than half. Then as the new growth takes off, keep reducing that by about a third to encourage it to bush out more.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • SmudgesDadSmudgesDad Posts: 61
    In answer to diggersjo, it’s to look at.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited August 2023
    Olives do not readily form a mop-head like a bay.  If That is what you want.  and I do, cut back to about 6in below where you would like its maximum height.  Then keep it at that. Leave side shoots to lengthen and droop.

    You can be quite hard.  Now is as good a time as any.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • diggersjodiggersjo Posts: 172

    I know they like a lot of light as the “experts” would be called in if a new grove were to be planted. I think it was 8m apart and they used lasers to line them up correctly so that each was offset to gain maximum light. I asked about the reason as if it was for olives (viable here???) I would say the same “experts” would decimate it down to the level of the smaller fence top (at least with older trees). Bede’s advice seems good, personally I would keep it at the higher fence top level, or at least try it there as its now got itself to where it can see the light – so to speak!


    Yorkshire, ex Italy and North East coast. Growing too old for it!
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