Olea europaea 2009-2012

Hi!

This olive was given to me by a bonsai friend in 2009. It came with its base cutted flat, with no roots at all. It was put in this plastic box in a highly drainnable soil composed by expanded clay, grit and garden soil.

2009



It grew very well along the rest of the year and in 2010. The very vigorous growth allowed for the first intervention in September 2010. The main branches where chosen and placed. The tree continued to grow freely the rest of the year to thicken the branches.

2010



In 2011, it was transplanted into a bonsai pot. The box was filled with roots so it was safe to repotted it at this time into a smaller pot. It has enough depht to allow the tree to continue its development. But the tree suffered some kind of disease or fungus attack and it lost all of its leaves and dried some of the branches. It only started to recover at the end of September/October when it launched new growth.

2011




This year, the response was very good. The spring growth was very strong and there were new buds everywhere along the trunk and branches. The tree was very healthy and I decided that it was time for a new intervention so I took it to may bonsai theacher Rui Ferreira and we decided to change the previous front and to cut the fomer top. There was a new choice of branches that were wired and reposicioned. Now it is a more compact tree, with a certain han-kengai flow, and I believe that it has a better future. It will stay untouched for the rest of the season and in the next year it will need some work on the big cutts. Some of the branches need to thicken much more and the ramification is at the beggining but this only means that I have something to entertain myself in the following years.

2012

You are building a tree, the creation is not finished , can you tell me why do you use a smaller pot ,do not you think you're wasting time ( it's just a question) ?

When it was repotted to this pot in the first place, the branches had developed very fast and they where thick enough so that we considered that it could be placed into this pot and still continue its growth altough through a more controled maner. Although the pot is smaller than the box, it is deep enough to develop well.
With last year's disease and the drying of some major branches that had to be cut, I have to rebuilt it from scratch again and it would benefit from a larger pot, but I won't repotted it now since it has regained its strengh.

So in the moment when we repotted the plant, it was thought that it was a good choice, but now it would probably go to another pot. Next year's growth will determine if it needs a bigger pot in 2014 or if it stays in this one for some more time.

abcd wrote:You are building a tree, the creation is not finished , can you tell me why do you use a smaller pot ,do not you think you're wasting time ( it's just a question) ?

What's the rush? I am criticised for putting my trees into small pots too soon. The question I always ask is what's the rush?

No rush at all.

Nunovsky_PT,

A pot twice the length/width, but same depth, may give better results all over.
Hope to see more.
Thanks for posting.
Khaimraj

Nunovsky_PT wrote:No rush at all.

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:
A pot twice the length/width, but same depth, may give better results all over.

Hi Khaimraj!

I agree with you that at this presente moment, since the branches have to grow and thicken, a bigger pot would help with it. But, like I said above, I'll leave it in this pot for another season since it has regained its strenght only this year and I won't risk putting more stress to the roots.
I'll wait and see how it will grow next year, and in 2014 if it needs some extra boost maybe it will go again to a wider pot or a new growing box.

Thanks for the reply!

This tree has been worked in a workshop with master Rui Ferreira.

The stump has has been worked at and the tree was cutted and rewired. Here's the result.