Young OLIVE tree

[floraldi]

Today, my son gave me a young olive tree he bought two years ago from Lidl or Netto.  He said he repotted it but he thinks it would do better in the ground.  It is about 3ft tall.   Do I need to prune it, if so when?  Can I feed it with a general liquid fertiliser.  He said he got fruit last year but the robins ate them all.

[floraldi]

[Thegoodlife]

if you think of the olive trees in spain,greece etc they are mostley grown on a hill side where i would say the soil will be very poor. im currently doing some research on this as im thinking of growing 12 or more trees for production.

so i will watch this space with interest so i would say just bung it in and hope, treat as a normal tree ;D

[Baccy Man]

Here are several links which give detailed advice on growing, pruning & harvesting olives.

http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/olives.html
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/olive.html
http://www.olivebusiness.com/OliveHandbook/GrowingOlives/pruning.htm
http://www.santacruzolive.com/planting.asp?page=harvesting
http://www.italiangardendesign.eu/#/olivetreepruning/4527903876

[Biscombe]

We have established trees, so I'm not really the best to advise!

We prune the new shoots (suckers) lower down the trees but leave the rest! I would say a young tree would benefit from thinning if looking crowded.

Feeding, I would say a little well rotted would do the trick! Our trees are in flower (nightmare if you have hayfever!) what is your tree up to?

Hope this helps!

PS Olive trees are tough, don't worry about pruning..............

[floraldi]

It is just in leaf at the moment.  My husband said he tidied the top of the soil and noticed yellow little balls on the surface.  I don't believe they are VW eggs (I have just had a whopper of a discussion on BBC Talk about these) as I have been convinced that something that looks like this is fertiliser from the compost that the plants are potted in.

I will look to see if there are any suckers. Thanks to all.