Olive tree is losing leaves

[PierreBoulez]

Hi

I bought an olive tree from a garden centre just over a year ago. It had lots of foliage at the time. I brought it home and repotted it into a slightly larger terracotta pot, as it kept falling over in the plastic pot.

It is in a west facing garden in Ruislip, north west London and my garden backs onto a park, which means it is light most of the time as there are no buildings or trees behind me that obstruct the sun. It does, however, seem to create a bit of a wind trap. So it’s windier than average in my garden.

Over the last 12 months the tree has lost more than half of its leaves. I have fed it occasionally and only water it when it gets dry, as advised with olive trees. We did get quite a lot of water last autumn and spring though and obviously I can’t control the weather.

Any ideas what is going wrong? The tree continues to lose leaves and eventually may die.

Jonathan

 

[cpp gardener]

The new growth on your Olive looks good, so no need to stress too much.

If your potting soil (compost), drains reasonably well, you can water once a week if temps are above 70*F and it hasn't rained. In the nurseries I've worked in we watered them almost every day in summer, of course temps over 90* regularly and no rain for months, so adjust for your climate. If you are going to water it that frequently you will need to increase fertilizer applications accordingly.