olive tree protection for winter
 

Hello, I hope its okay to post a question from south west france - I just thought there will be parts of Australia with a similar climate to us (its not exactly mediterranean here but we have hot summers and can have a few weeks of frost and temps of minus 10 degrees in the winter, but usually its just cold and wet. There was two days of snow last year.

I have taken on the responsibility to look after a friend's young olive tree this winter and would love some advice about how best to protect it.

Many thanks in advance

jay jay

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 17:36:40 +0100, jay jay
wrote:


Hello, I hope its okay to post a question from south west france - I
just thought there will be parts of Australia with a similar climate to
us (its not exactly mediterranean here but we have hot summers and can
have a few weeks of frost and temps of minus 10 degrees in the winter,
but usually its just cold and wet. There was two days of snow last
year.

I have taken on the responsibility to look after a friend's young olive
tree this winter and would love some advice about how best to protect
it.

Hi jay jay,

Your climate is still a little colder than most of Australia, but I
can certainly give a little advice. The cold and wet won't affect your
olive tree too much - I have seen seedling olive trees survive the
Sirrocco in the karst terrain to the north of Trieste - but you should
be careful of the frost. The best way to protect the tree from frost
is a thick layer of mulch around the base of the tree, making sure
thta it is at least 20 cm thick, but not touching the trunk so mould
can't affect the trunk of the tree. Some sort of hay or straw would be
ideal as mulch.

Geodyne