Gardeners :: Any tips on 'encouraging' tree's to grow.

[xrapidx]

I'm not into gardening - and have the following in my garden against the boundary walls - they're about a year old now and 1.6-1.9m tall:
7x Angustifolia Tree (Olive Tree )
9x Dodonaea Purpurea

Any idea what I can do to encourage them to grow faster, I want them at about 2.2m to hide the wall - before I chop off the tops to get them to spread out more.

Also - anyone know any good books on growing plants along the Cape coast? I'm clueless when it comes to gardens - and don't want a crappy garden - its taken me since November 2009 just to figure out the watering of grass

 

[wrathex]

Malmesbury and Yzerfontein nurseries stock indigenous trees and shrubs for your area.

Add compost then water deeply.
Make sure they have encouraging holes around them (large holes to encourage wide root spread and water cachement).
Water the trees deeply once a week and not shallowly once or twice a week.

 

[xrapidx]

Hmmm... my plants are watered twice a day for 20min - working with sand here.... the whole area around the trees is surrounded by mesembryanthemums (Vygies) - although they don't seem to flower like the ones in google image search

You think I should remove some around the trees? say 30cm on each side.

 

[Paul_S]

Hmmm... my plants are watered twice a day for 20min - working with sand here.... the whole area around the trees is surrounded by mesembryanthemums (Vygies) - although they don't seem to flower like the ones in google image search

You think I should remove some around the trees? say 30cm on each side.

It's generally recommended that you water deeply instead of shallow and frequently.
Watering "deeply" will encourage root development deeper down which makes trees less susceptible to drought or lack of water.
If you water too frequently the soil can become water logged which can lead to root rot.
Also when you have finished watering deeply the water that sinks down into the soil draws air into the root zone stimulating root growth (roots extract oxygen out of the air).
Having said that your sandy soil probably drains quite well but even so I'd limit the watering to maybe once every 3 or 4 days.

Always use copious amounts of compost when planting.
I use at least 3 x 20 litre bags (90 litres per hole) of compost and about 0.5 kg of super phosphate per tree.
Dig holes at least 1 meter in diameter by 1 meter deep and mix the compost, soil and super phosphate properly or if you're lazy like me make multiple layers (5 or 6 layers).
You don't want the super phosphate in a concentrated area that will chemically burn the roots when they try to develop.

If you're really wanting them to grow properly you can pay a laboratory to do soil and water analysis for you so that you can balance the pH and add the necessary nutrients to the soil based on the type of trees you're growing.

 

[Patty]

I heard if you beat up a tree it grows better fruits. This is because the tree goes in shock. Don't shoot the messenger.

 

[The_Assimilator]

Here's a tip: "trees" is written or typed without an apostrophe, "it's" has an apostrophe.

 

[xrapidx]

I heard if you beat up a tree it grows better fruits. This is because the tree goes in shock. Don't shoot the messenger.

Strangely, my ex had hedges that weren't growing along her wall - one night a drunk dude ploughed through the wall and flattened the hedges... couple of months later they were huge.

 

[AniV]

I haven't tried this on a tree yet, but it works like a bomb on all my little plants and flowers and shrubs.
Get yourself some plant food. There are various kinds available but I use some pink stuff (looks like little crystals) that is a powder that i mix with water and feed to my plants. I'm sorry, I don't know the brand (my MIL gets it from her mom who gets it from somewhere and they give it to me in a jiffy bag.) I'll try to find the name though.
If you feed them the stuff regularly (three or four times a week) then they kinda "explode". I had a soccer-ball-sized spider plant that I gave some pink stuff one week. In a month it got twice the size, and it has a million little baby plants. I've transplanted about 20 already and still have about 100 left that I don't know what to do with...

Plant food man. It's water on steroids. (Add this on top of the compost or fertiliser you have in there already.)

 

[Paul_S]

I heard if you beat up a tree it grows better fruits. This is because the tree goes in shock. Don't shoot the messenger.

The same applies to pruning in order to get more flowers - rose bushes being a prime example.
Plants go into survival mode when they get pruned or damaged. The natural response it to create new seed in order to ensure survival of the species so hence more flowers and/or larger fruit.