Olive tree help!

[Kelly Williams]

I recently bought a 50 year old gnarled olive tree. I have 0 experience with trees and would really like to keep it alive!
It’s in a large, shallow pot and according to the seller can stay in there indefinitely as long as it has drainage out the bottom.

I understand pruning is to be done at the end of winter but I don’t really understand what I have to cut off and where.

It has rained almost constantly since I got the tree and the gnarled bark seems very soft and spongy, lots of it feels like it would just fall away if picked gently. Is this ok or is it rotten? I can see some bits of the actual trunk underneath and it seems solid (brown in colour) will the gnarled bark grow back? Should I protect the exposed trunk?

Any help would be very welcome, thank you!

[Can the Man]

Hopefully some of our Mediterranean members can give you some advice soon.

[ameno]

The gnarled bark is fine. That outer layer is dead anyway, so it won't grow back (the "proper" bark is underneath), but there's no harm in leaving it. Old trees develop corky bark like that. It's normal.

Can't help with anything else, though.

[veggiechicken]

Hi Kelly.
I've no idea sorry but I would hope that the seller gave you some advice on how to prune it? A 50 year old gnarled olive tree doesn't sound cheap!!

Hope someone comes along who can help you.

My olive tree is about 15' tall and has been in the garden for 15 years. I don't prune it as I wouldn't know where to start!!

[devonuk]

Never pruned mine (it's 23) and it looks fine. I would leave it.

[Snoop Puss]

Firstly, the usual time to prune olives would be late winter, early spring after any fruit has been picked or has dropped off. Now they would normally be bearing mature fruit. So don't prune just yet. If you do prune, just trim back the ends of any branches and clear out any larger branches that are interfering with others or to shape the tree as you see fit. Olive trees can withstand severe and inexpert pruning quite well.

I shouldn't worry too much about the bark. Olive trees often look like the bark can easily be peeled off in slivers.

That said, I'm more concerned about the shallow pot. How tall is the tree at the moment? And what are the dimensions (diameter and depth of the pot)?

[Kelly Williams]

Thank you for your replies, I have tried to attach a pic but I’m not sure if it’s going to work.
The pot is 30cm high and 80cm wide. Tree is 1m high to top of the trunk and about 1.8m to the top of the branches.
I was reading advice on pruning to maximise fruit production, that’s probably why I was confused.
I (hopefully) have also attached the pruning instructions from the people who sold it originally - basically cut anywhere!
I bought the tree from a neighbour, he moved in and realised that he gets very little to no sun his florist mother used to prune it for him.
Tree currently has no fruit probably because it’s been moved a few times and has had a lack of sun this year. Luckily my garden gets the sun all day.

[Snoop Puss]

Kelly, I've written and deleted several replies. That is the most depressed looking olive 'tree' I've ever seen. How did it manage to grow the branch that has been lopped off? Was it initially growing in the ground and has had its roots cut to get it into that pot? It just looks to me like a badly-pruned bonsai. It's not thriving because of the pot and the pruning it has had.

Does anyone in the UK have a view on what to do? Is this typical of the trees you buy?

My advice, on seeing the picture, is don't prune it for years. It needs masses more leaves than that. In fact, it's a prime example of how resilient olive trees are that it has survived the treatment it's had. Don't expect to get any fruit in a hurry, if ever. Sorry to be so damning.

[veggiechicken]

This UK site has olive trees for sale - all ages and sizes. https://www.olivegroveoundle.co.uk/p...d-olive-trees/

I wonder whether the neighbour's florist mother snipped away at the tree for her flower arrangements?

[Kelly Williams]

Oh dear!  Well, thank you for the honesty!
It’s a Villaggio Verde tree, I couldn’t tell you how it’s been grown or how it ended up in that pot. I did wonder why that branch has been cut off but I can’t answer that either.

Not pruning it for years suits me lovely but should I cut off any branches/shoots with no leaves on?
I can’t plant it in the ground because we’re on clay and I’ve just had a new patio. Would putting it in a planter say a meter square and 600 deep make a big difference?
Does anyone know what soil to use and what (if anything) I should be feeding it with, that would be great!
Thank you 

[veggiechicken]

Villagioverde sell them in pots like yours https://villaggioverde.co.uk/product...d-olive-trees/
As an aside, the photos on that site are quite funny - the man who stands by the trees shrinks and grows so you can't get a true comparison between the height of the trees!!

[Snoop Puss]

I need to start an olive tree export business! I could make a fortune.

I can't believe people mutilate trees like that and charge a fortune for a bit of old stump that is desperate to stay alive. It's shameful. Those are not proper trees. Actually, I am really quite upset by those photos on those websites. I think I'd better go to bed. Catch you tomorrow guys.

Sorry, Kelly. With regard to the pruning, if you've got a few twiggy bits with no leaves, just snip off the ends but don't go mad. And do it in a few months time. With any luck, you might encourage it to grow a few more leaves.

[AntC]

When we were waiting for a ferry last year at Calais we got talking to a driver of a curtain sider HGV who was watering about twenty ancient olive trees in the trailer. He said that they are grubbing out olive groves like mad to satisfy demand from the UK and all he was worried about was to get them to the tree nursery before all the leaves fell off. They were in much more generous pots than the one shown here but their roots must have been heavily pruned even then. It was a heartbreaking sight.

There is a disease that is decimating the olive groves in Italy and France apparently.

[Snoop Puss]

I can buy a two-year-old olive tree here for two euros. Yes, two. It would make for a much better tree in five years than those mutilated affairs in those pictures. I can't help but see it as a form of plunder. And you're right about the disease, AntC. Transporting trees like that will help it to spread.