Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Livinhope on June 22, 2010, 12:31
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This is something I hope someone is able to help me with. Last year I bought a little olive tree it was supposed to be able to withstand the southern English winter temperatures. As it was rather extreme it died. I sent for some olive seeds and without much hope planted them. I have just discovered that one has germinated. Is there anyone out there who can give me good advice so that my baby doesn't succumb this year.
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I have no idea, but maybe emailing somewhere that does "foreign" plants like Heligan or Eden Project for advice, I know their head gardeners are a wealth of knowledge.
Nothing ventured.......
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Gardeners world are offering a free olive tree for readers, ive posted a link in the frugal living section :)
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I've got the seedling, and hopefully more to follow I just need to know how to ensure it's survival.
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Judging from how they grow here in the wild (and in my garden) it would seem keep'em well drained as they hate wet feet , frost free, but not heated and planted shallow. Good luck!
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Mine's in a pot in the garden, we've had it 4 years and it came through last winter really well. We rarely water it, unless it gets some when other pots are watered.
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I've seen them growing rampant in Tuscany, just seeding and growing everywhere and they don't seem to mind being totally thirsty. The one that has germinated hasn't been watered for some time because I had given up on them and thought they had rotted or just not done anything. I think I may bring it (them) into the conservatory (unheated) for the winter.
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I think they are generally frost hardy, but hate cold wet conditions - well drained is one key.
Don't know whether the rhs has a fact sheet on growing olives?
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Most of the olives you see for sale here are from the plant nurseries in Tuscany, but some do come from Spain and these are less hardy breeds. Tuscany gets very cold in the winter but it's also pretty dry and that's the main difference to why they survive or not. The smaller the tree, the less able they are to cope with our winters.
They need somewhere sheltered and to be kept on the dry side over winter. An unheated conservatory would be ideal but spray the plant well before you bring it in just in case it has picked up red spider mite or other nasties.
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The one I lost came from Tuscany, that's why I bought it. It was about a foot high but think the winter was too severe.
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I just about kept mine alive over the winter, but its nearly 2 foot tall and has only 20 leaves- its the scruffyest plant ever, have repotted it, it a better draining pot, and talked too it, and am hoping it will improve- just got to stop my OH enthusiastically watering it as he feels sorry for it!
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Olive trees are incredibly hardy. You should easily be able to keep them alive in the south of the UK. I imagine the reason why they do badly is because they're kept in pots, which is less than ideal. People don't generally grow oaks, ash or walnut trees in pots. An olive tree needs the same kind of attention as you'd give any other 'proper' tree.
Put them in the ground in a sunny spot that's not too windy, support as you would a fruit tree and mulch in the winter. Give a good dollop of muck or nitrogen-fertiliser in the spring. If you have weeks on end of rain, dust or spray with a little copper sulphate to ensure the leaves don't become diseased.
I don't think cold is a problem so much as a lack of sunshine. Where we are, night time temps reach minus 13ºC and stay that way for weeks on end. The trees don't mind. I don't know what kind of olive trees are sold in the UK. Our local ones are Empeltre. There are all kinds of different types but even the ones that grow in the south of Spain survive perfectly well here.
Like any young tree, they will need watering a bit. The local recommendation here is 10 litres per week, given all in one go. That, of course, is for trees in the ground. In the UK, less would be required, I guess.
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Hey Snoop, your watering recommendations are way different from what our nursery told us - mind you I guess it depends on the tree age when you get it. I planted a 300yr old one and was told it needed - wait for it - 100 litres (all in one go) once at end June and once again end of August! To be honest it gets what it's given and is doing just fine! I was also told not to feed it, so I don't!
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Oops, just re-read your post, Snoop, sorry! You said "young tree" Doh....
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I think what got mine wash the pot that I bought it in was awful- not enough holes and very waterlogged, but as it was fresh repotted when I had bought it I had left it alone and was waiting for roots to appear!
And then was frustrated when it looked so poor, its brightening up now, so fingers crossed.
we are mostly lucky with our climate, but we are on the edge of the moor, so do get some interesting cold winds!
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Italian nurseries do tend to use fairly grim potting medium as they have all their stuff on irrigation drip lines and feed and water daily via this. Once the stuff is off drip lines it does tend to sulk a bit ;)
A new pot, some good drainage in the base and John Innes no 2 is what I usually recommend to customers at work. Water well over summer, keep on dry side over winter. Feeding optional - they don't need a lot. Liquid seaweed may help fire some life into a winter traumatised olive. There's no logical reason for this but it's what we use at work on plants looking stressed and it does seem to help.
Olive plants are characters, so scruffy will mature into wind swept and interesting Mobilekat :lol:
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When I get home I will takes some pictures- I am fond of it, I have a weak spot for plants with character!
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The only kind of places round my way that keep olive trees in pots are dinky galleries looking to draw tourists in.
My understanding is that olive trees in the UK are expensive. Round here they're five euros a pop for a what's called a 'doblete', a couple of years old or so, ten euros for a four-year-old or thereabouts.
If I was paying upwards of seventy pounds for a tree, which is what a friend told me they cost in her local garden centre in Britain, and wanted to keep it long-term, I'd be putting it in the ground.
I don't want to upset anyone but olive trees are not bred to live in pots, unless you get a bonsai version. They're not specially bred like some fruit trees to live in containers. You will get heartache trying to keep one for years in a pot.
Olive trees don't mind the cold that much and they don't even mind winds (we get 60-100 kmph winds for days not to say weeks on end at certain times of year) but what they do need is sunshine for long periods of the year, feeding twice a year (nitrogen-rich in spring, P and K-rich in autumn), watering a bit in the early years and pruning hard to keep them in the shape you want and to clear out dead stuff. If you can give them that, you're laughing.
Olive trees live for hundreds of years, precisely because they can cope with extreme conditions.
I wouldn't keep one in Manchester (not enough sunshine), but you could start up groves in Cornwall! Don't expect to make money off selling the fruit, mind. Farmers round here get 27 cents a kilo for their finest olives, less for olives sent for oil.
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Didn't get ours for the fruit. :lol: It was to commemorate our engagement, which happened on Samos, Greece, in an area of olive growers. We bought it for £19 a few years ago, and it had olives on it so it must have been a few years old I suppose. It usually flowers and sets fruit, but there is not much flower on it this year....maybe because it had a drastic hait cut last year. If and when we manage to sell our house and move, it can go in the ground. Till then, it can slum it in it's large pot. :dry: