I've heard conflicting advice about this one - some say you must not prune olives, some say you can. So now I'm confused.
Does anyone prune their olive tree successfully? If so - when and how much?
I picked my ripe olives yesterday - looked like there were loads on the tree, but when they are in the jar, it's hardly any. I must weigh them.
Anyway - I noticed several of the branches are crossing and there's a lot of spindly upward growth near the top.
gosh
didn't know we could grow olives in uk - I'm in Oxfordshire, whaddya reckon my chances, or is it inside?
Hi Larry
I'm in greater london, so it doesn't get that cold. Also my garden is surrounded by high fences and fairly small, so it is sheltered. Although I lost a palm last winter, so it still gets cold. My olive is in a terracotta pot, pretty much 50:50 compost to gravel. it also has a thick mulch of slate chips to keep the rain off.
From what I've found through research, it's not so much the cold (olives survive snow in the Tuscan winter, apparently) as the wet that kills them. I was rather surprised to get such a harvest off my tree, though.
I know other people bring theirs into the greenhouse for the winter. I don't have a greenhouse, though.
My friend has one INDOORS. I pinched out the tips before i gave it to him, to make it more bushy and the pair of buds below the pinch have started to grow (phew!?!). The only prob. i can think of, with my very limitd knowledge, not contradicting the above advice, is the cold on very young trees/plants and to the freshly cut branches, i.e prune in spring if out side.
what were the reasons for not pruning?
When I lived in the south of France we picked the olives in septembre et oktobre and pruning was after that and during the winter. What I can remember : young trees- trim only. All the side shoots off till about 1.50 mtr. Do not forget take away suckers and cut out all dead wood.
Keep the centre open, make goblet shape.Should see the sky from down, looking up, Prune 1x per3years hard. Thats what happend to our olives .