Sweet olive tree leaves are curling up

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

Hi, I hope this is the right forum! Anyway, I have a sweet olive tree that I planted about a month ago. It's maybe 2' high right now and looks great, overall. However, once a new pair of leaves grows out, the pair(s) underneath it are curling up and shriveling a bit. It's never the top leaves, only ones below.

I'm in southern LA so the tree gets plenty of water and is mulched. I was initially thinking it looked like citrus leaf miner, which unfortunately got my grapefruit and satsuma trees. But if sweet olive isn't citrus maybe that rules it out, plus I haven't seen the CLM trails.

Any advice?? Thank you so much for any suggestions!

Featured Answer

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

11 years ago

I see that only a very few leaves are affected, but the pictures aren't really helpful in seeing if leaf miners are a problem. There are many species of leaf miners, by the way.

Judging by the inconclusive images, I would probably clip off the affected stems at the main trunk. By the way, take one minute and clip off the little branches that touch the ground. There might only be one or two, but they need to come off....again cut cleanly to the trunk.

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Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
a pic for sure.. would help ...

if the new growth is fine ... then ignore the old leaves ...

and thats all i can say... without a pic

ken
ali b (zone 9b)
Original Author
11 years ago
Hi Ken, thanks for the tips. Here are some pictures. Does that shed any more light on the issue?
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Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
11 years ago
Sweet olive = Osmanthus fragrans?

Looks like it's still getting adjusted and may be stressed in the transplanting process
ali b (zone 9b) thanked Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
ali b (zone 9b)
Original Author
11 years ago
Ok I took some more pictures, with close up of the leaves to give y'all a better idea. It actually is more than a few leaves so I want to make sure I'm not ignoring a problem. I'll also follow your advice, rhizo, and trim the branches that touch the ground, clipping them all the way to the trunk. One factor re: Dave's point is that a week or two ago I did move the tree (from where it had been for about two weeks) about two feet in order to get away from one of its close tree neighbors. So that could have been a shock, I'm guessing. Onto the pics:

The ones front and center aren't curled up, but maybe those spots are a clue about what's going on??

Any clues? Thank you so much!!!
ali b (zone 9b)
Original Author
11 years ago
Update: I went to the nursery about something else and showed the worker these pics. He concurred with Dave and said the spots (along with the leaf damage) show some kind of fungal problem, either from moving the plant or from overwatering or both. We've been getting a lot of water here, so my additional watering may have definitely exacerbated the problem. Will sit tight, cut back on the watering, and cross my fingers that the additional new growth looks good. Thanks!
Wes Waite
5 years ago
I am in Astoria, Oregon and have a very similar problem. We are in a temperate rainforest and can't do much about over watering. However, this year we have had no rain since March and the curl problem is rapidly going away.

Less rain on Sweet Olive good.

Less rain in rainforest bad.