olive tree woes

[Ive Fargottin]

I have a very healthy looking olive tree in my backyard, at least 10 years old. It has never fruited, not once. Good water, drainage, gypsum, pruned, tried most things. Am I not doing something right or is it in the wrong climate. North Qld dry tropics.

[mike]

Drainage,drainage,drainage-going on the photos you posted they're drowning.They are small trees ,olives transplant really well.Pull them up with as much soil as you can around the roots-mound the rows maybe a meter wide and 750mm high and replant with no fertiliser and then when settled back in feed them as they are like citrus,predominately surface root feeders.Olives love water,they just don't like wet feet!

[sweetpea]

Ive, if your olive tree doesn't give you a crop, then the weather is annoying it. I see you are in the dry tropics, but do you have high humidity? They hate that. You might try planting another olive that is a different kind so they can cross pollinate.

[Ive Fargottin]

Yeah, humidity is at about 99.9% atm.
Thought that might be the case.

My neighbour has planted an olive so I'll see how it goes.

I love my tree, might just have to be an ornamental

[sweetpea]

yeah, that's probably the issue. It is a lovely tree, though. And unless you actually use the olives, they can be a real mess, splat purple stains, and bring in critters that eat them, spit out the pits and make another mess!

[Ive Fargottin]

Critters would be full from "harvesting" my other fruit trees before they got to the olive anyway!

[Grasshopper]

I have a very healthy looking olive tree in my backyard, at least 10 years old. It has never fruited, not once. Good water, drainage, gypsum, pruned, tried most things. Am I not doing something right or is it in the wrong climate. North Qld dry tropics.

There is 3 olive farms just down the road here and its Central coastal Qld Sub tropics
Talking to the oldest olive farmer he said the olive that fruits the best in these conditions is manzanillo all other varieties tried didnt flower so they ended up grafting.
My friends grove is still young and he has several varieties,but mainly manzanillo,I haven't seen it for a year or so but there was tonnes of little fruit even on the very small trees

[Ive Fargottin]

Does anybody have an ID key for Olive trees?

[101agritech]

Ive just been reading about inoculating hydroponic systems with Mycorrhizal fungi and there has been some great results with that. Would be interesting to see what effect it has, it has proven disease suppression, although not sure about a Phytophthora condition on a perrenial plant. You can by mix species of mycohorrizal from a few companies, and can be added to soil after planting.
I also wonder how some olive species go in high rainfall, it could well be the wrong rootstock for your area, and they dont like heavy soils that hold lots of water. Using this application of potassium phosphonate, which isnt totally organic, may just be masking a core problem. Although I think that trees planted in the drought could be affected by the recent rains.
A foliar application of calcium and boron which olives use more than most other fruit trees, might fix a mineral deficiency that is resulting on losing new seasons growth.
Good luck

I agree with matto solution. I was also faced the ssame problem few time ago. Its really a good solution.

[mischief]

Dont give up on your Olives even if they arent flowering.
The leaves make a good medicinal tea that tastes quite good, so not totally ornamental!

There used to be a site in Italy on all the different types of Olives.
It gave really good discriptions and growth habits,but that was ages ago.
The last time I tried to get on that site ai couldnt get in, might be different now tho.