Topic: Olive J5 in Hoon Hay, CHCH

Olive J5 in Hoon Hay, CHCH 

Kia Ora, I've bought an Olive tree and I'd like to plant it in between a Chilean guava young plant and an ornamental mature tree. I have about 1m to 1.5 metres by 1m between those two plants to grow the Olive. My concerns are that
1. the Olive tree won't have enough space to mature given that it may need 3m (and 4 m high - space which is available)
2. the Olive tree will shade the other plants to its left (Chilean guava, cranberry, blackcurrant,Feijoa- in this exact order).
3. The olive tree won't get enough sun as most of the plants already planted there need or can do well in partial shade.

Your advices please!

Re: Olive J5 in Hoon Hay, CHCH 

The size of any plant can generally be controlled with pruning and training. The fertility of the soil and other factors such as sunlight hours and temperature will also affect plant size over time.

Think about how large you want each plant to grow and how much light each plant needs. For example a Feijoa will grow in the shade, but will grow slower, more leggy and produce less fruit. This is the same for the guava. The blackcurrant love moist soil and shade.

If you are just wanting to leave your plants to their own devices, the more densly they are planted, the more of a jungle you will have. If you are willing to keep an eye on your plants regularly and shape them to suit your own needs/wants then you can almost plant whatever/wherever.

For example I have a guild of plants that support each other. A row of olives providing some wind shelter for a row of citrus, and a row of stone fruit. So the rows go [Olives] - [Citrus] - [Stone Fruit]. The citrus are mid canopy and get some shade from the hot summer sun from the olives and stone fruit in the higher canopy. In winter the stone fruit trees have no leaves and let more light on to the citrus. Below all the trees are herbaceous plants to provide ground cover and keep the soil moist and alive/active.