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Olive tree woes
hiacedrifter
Posts: 119
Hi everyone,
This is my first post and I'm in desperate need of help!
I bought an olive tree (or bush according to the label) to celebrate the birth of my daughter in 2011. Since then it hs hardly grown, and seems to have lost leaves or at least not grown many more. I have compared it to other olive bushes, and there is a definite lack of foliage.
Link here:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/capture_release/tt7sJ0/
Thanks in advance
HD
0
Posts
Hi HD - I'm no expert, but I've got 1 in a big pot - had it about 10yrs now and it's only grown about 2ft - also loses leaves now and then, but it grows slowly and steadily. I think around now is the time to prune if you wish and you can prune them hard if needed, but others on this forum will no doubt be able to guide you better - I just water mine now and then and try to remember to give it a little BFB once a year.
The pics look ok - maybe remove some of the straggly branches, and the last pic seems to show some sort of insect making a cover for itself. Again, not sure what it is tho
I try to keep in mind the olive trees in Greece - on poor gravelly soil, baking summer heat and no rain for weeks on end and they go on for hundreds of years. We're most likely to kill them with kindness.
Mine blooms every year and little olive set, but of course come to nothing. I did get 1 decent size olive a few yrs ago - tasted horrible
Good luck
Update - the webs may be spidermite - take a look underneath the leaves with a magnifying glass. The small red ones can be seen with the naked eye, but there's another sort you'll need a glass to see - tiny pale mites with 2 spots on their back
Not too much water and lots of sun - think Greece in midsummer and it should be fine - mine has no winter protecting over the years and hasn't suffered
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Quite right ps2 - the cost of the brining tank alone outweighed the benefits for 1 olive
I could have pressed it of course - maybe if I get another one day
But if you get an olive on your olive tree, it's gotta be tasted...
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I knew they tasted horrible str8 from the tree, but I had to taste as it was the only proper size olive I every had and I've never bothered when in southern Europe. It makes you wonder who on earth came up with the ideas to turn something quite nasty into something quite delicious
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.