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Welcome Matthew.
Never done it myself, but there is a large second hand trade in mature Olive trees, some stolen/liberated by all accounts, so presumably they do move well, but stand by for reliable advice.....
Lovely thanks for the info, perhaps I need a couple of LARGE pots??
I have never moved an olive, but I guess the same principles apply as for moving other large trees/shrubs.
Probably best to wait until later in the year or early spring, when the tree isnt growing too much, pre dig your holes or ready your pots, and get as large a root ball as possible.
The less you disturb the roots the better, and once you have moved them, keeps them watered well for a while.
Good luck!
Mark
Hi Matthew
Perhaps the best person to ask on here is Villaggio Verde Olive Trees I should think what they don't know about moving olive trees isn't worth knowing.
All the best
Tanya
Hi Matthew,
I live in the heart of Andalucia, the biggest olive producing region in the world. The market in olive trees for ornamental purposes is increasingly lucrative and specimens decades or centuries old are frequently removed as part of commercial replanting programmes or as the result of land redevelopment - landowners legitimately sell these trees on to nursery outlets, etc. These trees are often root and branch pruned severely and put in relatively small containers for sale: many seem to survive this process reasonably well although regrowth takes some years. Many such transplanted trees are being used in municipal plantings in the urban Granada area and, unlike some other tree species used in the area with a lower survival rate, I so far haven´t seen any mortalities among the olives.
It sounds like your client´s trees are quite young, so they should cope okay as long as they´re lifted in the winter (January-February). If it´s in a Mediterranean region they will need to be watered consistently for at least a year to let the roots establish. Drought is the major killer of newly planted trees here.
Peter.
Hi John,
I have moved few olive trees, mature at diffrent ages from 3,5 to hundreds of years old.
First, it is fairly easy with olives as they are tough trees, but being professionalmeans to get best reasults.
5 years really perfect and easy age that should be very easy for the trees- if you had any bad feeling about it.
In fact as these trees are so forgivable, in many countries tey are kept out of the ground for years at garden centres etc, In israel they are few trees that are over 2000 years old ( I am sure that in many other countries).
I would prefer to do it in spring so the tree got a long season to root perfect but if you do not have the time I am sure it will be fine if you do it before.
If you are loosing roots that try to thin some foliage too - but i guess on that age you might be able to digg a good ball around the roots.
Ideally do not plant them in strong winds areas so you will enjoy evergreen trees.
If you have any other question let me know...
If you do it manually digging- I somtimes did ... create a ball of 1 metre (3-4ft) wide and about 3 ft deep .
I used to 'cut' the bottum part with water pressure from a garden hose. a bit muddy job but amazing how it works ... one thumb on the hose to create max pressure...
Good luck
Excellent, thanks all, by the replies it looks like I'm OK to move somewhere more suitable., without too much risk of them dying off.
Peter, unfortunately not Mediterranean, just South London, but I guess the principal of keeping them well watered after planting holds true.
Tanya, I'll contact them directly & Ofer thanks for the detail on moving. Yes it will be manually.
done quite a few on the south coast. they can sulk for a while once transplanted, and really do prefer to be in the ground rather than pots in the long term. The local nursery i deal with imports and sells a lot of them and they suggest using a seaweed feed on them
Thermo,
Thanks for the tip.
Olives are tough as old boots. Dig them up, give them a good root feed, prune back the branches (it's not too late). Ours take a real bashing and as long as they get a good deep watering (the roots rot if they are water logged) and feed they will withstand anything but...give them shelter for the first winter, they really don't like the UK climate when it gets really cold.