Olive tree loses leaves and flowers - common causes

Olive trees in Germany sometimes like to lose their leaves and flowers because they do not grow in their dream climate here. But other claims of the olive tree are often misjudged. There are some causes for the loss of leaves and flowers, which are directly related to the fact that the olive tree lives in the wrong climate here. And there are some care mistakes that can lead to leaf fall:

Typical olive tree in Germany

Most leaf losses are complained of during / after hibernation and have the following causes:

• A young olive tree planted north in the garden has probably frozen in winter
• Olive trees grow close to the equator, from 30 degrees latitude and to the north at most to 45 degrees latitude
• Germany's southern tip lies on the 47th parallel, the northern tip on the 55th.
• Winter cold knows olives only briefly and little below zero, if they experience (rather short) longer periods of frost, they freeze
• Even an environment below 5/8 ° C (depending on the variety) can make unprotected olives pretty bad mood
• Cut off everything frozen at the beginning of spring just up to where the wood is green and fresh inside
• To improve winter protection for the next winter season, it should protect the plant below and above the ground
• Maybe the olive tree had to be thirsty even in winter
• As an evergreen plant, it has to supply its leaves even in winter
• The seemingly withered branches can still live inside, so first of all, wait and see if they will cast out again in the spring
• If nothing comes, dried branches can and should be removed
• The container plant may have experienced the same as the olive tree in the garden
• Freezing or freezing is even faster, in the bucket a much smaller volume of earth is exposed to the cold
• This means at the same time drying out, when the bucket earth is frozen, no water transport can take place to the plant cells
• Again, next winter protect tree all around, so that neither sap in the shoots or freezing water in the earth
• Fertilize olive trees in the spring (even if it is otherwise rather barren), which gives a little extra power to budding
• Leaf fall (also at other times) is caused, if the olive tree is generally too dark, not infrequently with us:
• Olive trees grow in regions, with 1200-2000 kWh / (m² · a) global radiation
• In Germany, global radiation starts at 1200 kWh / (m² · a) and goes up to a meager 800/900 kWh / (m² · a) in the north
• The more magnificent the home of the olive tree is irradiated and the further north it is cultivated, the greater the "gap of light"
• In the winter behind the window, there is less light
• In the absence of light fall leaves, switch to a lighter place or plant light

Tip - If the olive tree has thrown leaves, you should not give up too early: Olive trees are tough, there are reports of olive trees forgotten for years in dark rooms, which expelled from every buttonhole with good supply ... but may take a while.

Other dropout causes

• Olive trees, which are dried up during the holiday or get a little too little water for a long time, eventually throw leaves
• Remedy: pour more, please carefully approach the optimal amount (instead of drowning olive in return)
• Exactly that, roots in the "wet mud" instead of in well-aerated soil, can cause the leaf / bloom case too
• Olive trees need less water than our average rainfall, which is important for irrigated tubs
• In an emergency, they come away with much less and like dryness much better than wetness
• If additional water is poured / the drain is clogged / the substrate has lost its water storage capacity, an olive tree drowns quickly
• Commercially available substrates are not earth and do not have the ingredients of earth
• Many substrates are virtually free of nutrients, everything has to be added, first by the manufacturer, then by you
• Without any compensatory function by organic substances, all kinds of things can happen with these substrates
• From nutrient deficiency to concrete-like compaction, everything leads to undersupply and the leaves fall
• Remedy: Use loosened (garden) soil, supplement substrate with organic fertilizers (frequent repotting)
• Dryness or nutrient deficiency affects the flowers with a long-term effect - even stress long before flowering damages the flowers
• Flowers are dropped in all these disorders, of course, as are the leaves

Tip -
There are pests and diseases that cause leaf loss. However, these are only too much or occur only when the olive tree (the neighboring plant) suffers from deficiencies, so running in such cases plant strengthening and reduction / control of pest / disease (olive pests) in parallel. If everything is alright, the olive tree could naturally discard its leaves because they have their maximum lifetime behind them.