Old olive trees drying out and giving no olives.

8 years ago

Hi,

My name is Huseyin Demir from Turkey/Aydin.

I have 100 hectars of olive trees, oranges, mandarin oranges and prunes. My main issue is with my olive trees, most of them are 15-20 years old and a few around a 100 years old. They do not grow any olives (if they do, its countable) for some reasons and I can't figure out why. I had them pruned last year (cutted all dry branches, etc), regularly watering the whole place (once per 2 weeks).

We used to live in Canada and made a comeback to live in Turkey. We are pretty new to trees maintenance, gardening, etc...

Any advice or anything that would help those trees give olives would be highly appreciated.

Here is a few photos of the trees drying out and those that aren't drying but have no olives on them at all

Also please take a look at this pics. It's a single olive tree near the entrance of my farm. Its never getting watered and no maintenance at all but its the single and only olive tree in over 300 trees which dont dry out and gives olives. I just don't get it

Thanks in advance for any help

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Comments (3)

newtie
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Stop watering the olive trees. You are

killing them.. olives need perfect drainage and will die if the soil stays wet. Young ones just planted may require watering in very hot dry weather . Otherwise don't water them. Don't plant them on low ground where water might collect after a rain .
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
first ... i think of fruit production trees... as full sun ... the first... may have been in sun historically ... but is now in what looks like a lot of shade ... and i suspect that is not good ... no tree really dies in shade ... but fruit production takes a lot of energy.. meaning sun [i am too lazy to look up whether olive is a fruit .. i hope you understand my point]

the second.. show a lot of advantageous growth ... at the top of the thick trunk .... and in my tree world.. that is never good ... but i have no clue what is going on ...

you might have some luck in the fruit and orchard forum ....

do you have any history on these trees??? [like grandpas old farm?] ..... if not.. it might not be worth the time and effort ... to figure is all out ...

welcome home.. and good luck

ken
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It's not clear which part of the tree is dead - you've positioned in front of trees outside which didn't help either, but the whole tree looks the same to me - what part do you think is coming back to life? You say the tree was drying out, but I bet anything it was watered like a house plant by the 1st owner and that's probably what killed it, or at least part of it. Olives like to get pretty dry between waterings (think of their native homes). Just curious - why exactly do you think it's dead? Have you scratched the trunk and seen green or brown underneath? Or are the leaves in fact really dry and dropping? The first thing I'd do is cut back those branches by half, at least, and then stop watering (if you've been doing that) and come back in a week and tell us what's happening. There likely won't be a lot of new growth yet, but I'm curious to know if things change at all... right now there's not much to go on.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
While olives may be quite drought tolerant when established, they DO appreciate watering during very dry spells. It is suggested to water 1-2 times per month in summer, with a slow deep soaking (not a sprinkler) - no water in winter. A soaker hose or drip irrigation are very efficient methods of slow water delivery.

Flowering and fruit production depends heavily on proper pruning practices. Production is heaviest on one year old wood and you want the tree canopy to be vase shaped, open and airy. There is an old Italian saying regarding olives that you want to prune them so that a "swallow can fly through them", meaning that light and air are allowed to penetrate into the center of the tree. This link offer good pruning tips and a helpful video.

What is causing the dieback is impossible to determine from just the photos. If you resided in this country, I'd suggest taking in photos and samples to a plant pathology specialist (via extension service) for diagnosis but not sure what similar services you may have in Turkey. This link provides an excellent overview of olive care and cultural requirements plus outlines a number of disease pathogens - some quite serious - that can affect olives in a manner similar to what you are seeing. Regardless, any dead portions should be removed but until you are able to ascertain exactly what is causing the problem, I would suggest sterilizing any pruning equipment between cuts.

But my first order of business would be to locate someone local to you to properly diagnose any possible disease issues.

Old olive trees drying out and giving no olives.

Comments (3)

newtie

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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