Tl;dr: Our olive tree's leaves turned brown and dry. I pruned it in April and have since been on a quest to keep it alive/revive it, but it has shown no growth or sprouts since pruning. It is still green under the bark. Can it be saved, and if so: how? Located in the Netherlands.
My partner and I moved into our house in October of last year, going from an apartment with a balcony to a house with two gardens (front and back). While we'e got the beginnings of a nice garden going now, we were completely new to keeping plants/trees back then. A friend of ours gave us an olive tree as an amazing housewarming gift. However, the previous owners of the house had everything tiled up.
We took out a 60×60 cm tile (in retrospect this was too small, especially given the weather) in the middle of the front yard, put in some decent soil, and planted it. It did pretty well up until about the end of April. The weather had been exceptionally dry, and in a matter of days, all of its leaves turned brown an dry.
In an attempt to make it a bit more comfortable, I removed more tiles (the area is now around 180x180cm, or 6'x6') and replaced the surrounding soil with Mediterranean soil. I pruned the dead leaves, twigs and branches, hoping it would recover. I also sowed some wild flowers around the tree (not sure if that was the right decision?).
Unfortunately, the tree has not shown any sign of growth since then. I've been watering it regularly, but not too much, and have been adding biological fertilizer grains (blue stuff) every couple of weeks to keep the soil in good condition.
Is there anything I can do to save this tree, or is it too little, too late? Any advice is much appreciated.
Ps. I've not been removing all the faded flowers in the surrounding flowerbed to stimulate a more natural environment, but not sure if that's smart? Bonus pic of a dragonfly perched on the top of our patient.
by LCDR-Sheppard
6 Comments
*”Tl;Dr”*
…Longest damn post.
I’m not reading all that, holy cow.
It looks like it is still alive but I don’t know if it will survive your winter. What type of olive tree is it?
Just let it go until next spring and see what happens.
No more pruning for two years if it makes it.
Since you did not care enough before is why it is in this condition now !!! Anyone this mean does not deserve to have an olive tree😡
Some parts gotta still be alive, with a sharp knife make tiny cuts on the bark from top to bottom. The cuts will most likely be brownish at the top, so that until your cut is green : that’s where your tree is still alive, you can cut everything above.
I just saw you did a cut, good news it’s still alive, now find out where it’s dead and get rid of it. Once you’ll know what is left it will be more telling on how to deal with it.
He’s dead, Jim.
Sorry, I just reread everything to clarify.
When did you plant the tree? How big is it?
I still say leave it alone until next spring. Water it weekly and stop fertilizing. We only fertilize a couple of times a year. If it doesn’t bud out next spring, then dig it up and replace it.
Do you have any earlier photos, before pruning?