Size of my Olives ???

[Furkin]

My young tree had hundreds of flowers/fruits for the past 2 years,,,,, but none of the fruit grew bigger than a rice grain ! Is this normal for a small tree (about 15" high).
I thought that if it flowered,,,, then the fruit should produce & grow !

I have got a couple of long, new shoots that have grown over the past couple of months - should I leave these on - or cut them back ?

thanks for reading,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Alison]

Mine doesn't even flower so your doing better than me - the tree looks pretty healthy though so at least I've not killed it. Where do you keep your tree? Do the flowers need fertilising, if they're not then you wouldn't get any fruit - as I say, as mine's never flowered, I've never had to worry about the next stage!!!!!

[allotmentlady]

My young tree had hundreds of flowers/fruits for the past 2 years,,,,, but none of the fruit grew bigger than a rice grain ! Is this normal for a small tree (about 15" high).
I thought that if it flowered,,,, then the fruit should produce & grow !
I have got a couple of long, new shoots that have grown over the past couple of months - should I leave these on - or cut them back ?
thanks for reading,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Is it in a pot or the ground? Do you move it inside during winter and where is situated in the spring/summer? Have you fed it and pruned it?

My olive tree bears fruit but normal size, it is in a pot which can be moved and it comes inside during winter, for protection.

[smallblueplanet]

My olive's used to fruit (but I've pruned them this year because they were too 'whippy'). They flower and fruit on last years growth. Although ours grew fruit to a normal size they were still green until the frosts came. Don't think they would ripen fully, but after winter there were actually black olives still on the tree. Our olive trees stay outside all winter, tucked against the house wall in pots in free draining compost.

The first year we had the trees one fruited but only had tiny fruit before they fell off, in strong winds. Maybe yours are still a bit young?

[Furkin]

ALISON: It's kept indoors in the winter, but outdoors in the summer. It is in a pot,,, I have only repotted it once since buying it 3 years ago. It's about 15/18" high. I purposely keep it 'tight' potted to stop it running to leaf etc.

ALLOTMENTLADY: See above. I also feed it in similar to Citrus i.e.: foliage stuff in the winter & fruit stuff in the summer. I havn't pruned it yet, but it does have some long new twigs this year.
It does fruit,,,, but they don't grow,,,,,, the biggest last year was about the size of a dried pea,,,,, but the rest were tiny tiny.

SMALLBLUEPLANET: Yep - it may just be too young / small yet. Hopefully this year will be better.

Is there a specific fertiliser needed for these things ?

I tend to treat it similar to my Fig tree,,,, & that seems o.k (hope I havn't tempted providence by saying that !!!)

Some of you will know that I am in west Cornwall,,,, so we do have quite a mild climate (usually !?)

thanks all

[smallblueplanet]

Lol! Furkin, maybe you're being too kind we just leave ours to 'get on with it', maybe a bit of seaweed feed in the summer.