[eeedowls]

Hi

I received a mail order olive tree recently and one of its three branches is broken near right an the main stem - it has since come off...

Would it be possible to get it to root and in effect have two olive trees and how would I go about it or am I barking up the wrong er, tree?

any advice gratefully received...

[Yorkie]

I don't know whether olives are grafted onto different rootstock.  If they are, it's unlikely you'll get another tree the same.

The other thing I'd worry about is whether the broken bit had scabbed over too much for rooting hormones to work.

What's the size of the broken branch (diameter and length) and when did it arrive and break off completely?

[eeedowls]

Hi Yorkie

thanks for the response, sorry have not been in touch earlier.

The entire tree - I say tree, it is just a babee really - the tree is about 16" tall and the branch that broke is about 6" long - diamater - err - maybe a centimetre tops... 

It was broken on arrival (a breakage right at the join with the main stem/trunk) and the advise from the supplier was they are fairly robust and would survive it without any problems.

hope this helps...

[Swing Swang]

Commercial olives are grown on wild olive root stocks and have been so for hundreds of years, so the bit that broke off really needs to be grafted onto the appropriate root stock. However I'm not sure that the ones sold in this country are actually grafted as I've always found it difficult to find the 'scar' on shop-brought ones. My guess is that it won't root (for no other reason than I've never been able to get bay to root like this!), but you've got nothing to lose by trying.

SS

Edit - historical note - St Paul said that grafting a wild olive into a cultivated one was 'contrary to nature' (Romans 11:24) the implication being that it was usual practice to graft cultivated olives onto wild root stocks. It seems as though the practice is 1000's rather than 100's of years old!