Poorly Olive Tree

This olive tree had been in situ for about 4 years and was growing nicely until the cold snap December 2022 when I think it didn't much like the temps dipping to -11C over the span of a week or so.

Summer of 2023 it was pretty much dormant, no new growth. Into 2024 and it's been subjected the more rainfall than I suspect it cared for also. Leaves stil intact, but all brown.

Scratch the bark and it's pale wood underneath with a green tinge between the outer bark and the trunk underneath. But otherwise no signs of life.




I have aerated the lawn around it with a fork to try and aid drainage. It's not waterlogged, but we have had a lot of rain. Has had a dose of Vitax Olive Tree Feed, which made the grass shoot up, but no apparent impact on the tree yet.

Your thoughts please, is there any hope or should I be calling it a day with this one?

 

Its probably dead if there was no new growth last summer.

 

Sorry but it looks as dead as a dodo to me

 

Actually, now I remember there were signs of life last summer, it kept producing new green shoots from the very base of the trunk.

No such sign of life this year and it's very woody indeed.

Tempted to give it a hard prune by way of a last chance message.Puts me a step closer to the perhaps inevitable removal also.

 

What happened to the new shoots at the base of the trunk … are they still alive and growing, or were they the poor plant’s last death throes?

 

I removed them as at that point I didn't want to entertain new growth from the bottom. No such signs now or I would let them grow.

 

The new growth at the bottom might have been its last gasp and final way of making a comeback.

 

There are new shoots at the base :D

 

Great, but it might be a long time before you get olives! Perhaps that matters little and you will be happy to get your tree back providing this go okay - fingers crossed.

 

I just want a tree with some leaves, it bearing fruit I can live without.

Do you think this a sign the tree might recover or am I in for a wait for one of these shoots to grow into a new tree?

 

Have you re-examined the rest of the tree for any sign of buds? I would be hoping it would have signs like that at some point. I've seen much older trees than that where they were moved, it took 2-3 years for them to even look like they would survive, let alone recover fully. For me it would be worth the effort, but not for everyone to have a dead looking tree in the garden.

 

I think you need to accept the top has died and the roots have survived.
Just let it grow.