bucida spinosa

I just aquired a 4 foot black olive tree in a garden container for free. It has a 3" trunk and want to know if it is the right time of year to chop the trunk? I have decided to leave it in the container until next spring because pruning roots now would not give them much time to grow out before the end of the growing season. I would like to chop the trunk about 2 feet now and start to prune branches and do a little wiring. Being the beginning of July, would chopping now be enough time before autumn for this tree to heal? Living in Naples is sub tropical and is warm up to November. Steve

I think you could safely chop and repot now.