On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:18:02 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 26/4/07 11:42, in article
.com, "Anyroadup"
wrote:

I planted an Olive tree a few weeks ago and kept it well watered, as I
thought one should with any newly planted container grown plant, but
some leaves started to yellow and fall off. I decided this must be
over watering, since the Olive shouldn't normally need much, and cut
the watering right down. The leaves now look a bit dry and curled. How
can I judge how much water it needs please?

Water it when it's dried out and remember how they grow naturally - rocky,
well drained soil. Is yours raised so that water can dry right away,
because while the soil on top might feel dry to the touch when we have sun
and wind to dry it, the soil at the bottom might still be very wet. And is
the container too big for the plant? If so, you have a lot of cold, wet
compost sloshing around roots that are too small to take it up and will rot.

My neighbour has one growing in a pile of rocks and very sandy soil.
The heap of rocks and soil is about four foot high. The tree is only
about six foot high but it is tangled up all over the hill. It looks
quite mature like a twisted tree from a horror movie. It produced some
olives a few years ago but they didn't taste as good as shop bought
ones. Of course, everyone said they were great!

Steve