Olive tree

Hi! This post is just to show a technique that I use with my olive trees.

I believe that many other do the same, but since I haven't seen anyone posting this kind of work with olives in here, I thought it would be nice to make a little "show-and-tell" of the process.

One of the main problems with old olives collected from the wild is the big stumps it creates on the roots. You can't work it like you do with other broadleafs, so it may be a problem to create a good nebari in the future.

The simplest way to resolve this problem is simply to cut the base straight and treat the tree like a big cutting. Olives grow roots very easily, and you can root really big cuttings with no problems.

Here is an example of this technique.

I bought this olive in December 2009 from a garden center here in Portugal. It cost me €25 ($35 more or less).



In March 2010, at our club meeting we made this report of the process. I don't have the picture of the olive bare rooted but the following sequence shows what has been done.

We have cutted the bottom of the tree leaving it quite flat.







It was left with only 2 roots, but I have left some trees with no roots at all and they have recovered well. We had to put some screws to tie the tree to the pot with wires so it would not move.

It was planted in a plastic box with barked clay and pine bark for substract.



It grew freely during the rest of the year. In August 2011, since it grew many new branches and there were many roots going out of the bottom holes, was made the first selection of branches a wire was applied to put them in place. Now the tree will grow freely for another season or two to thicken the branches to keep up with such a massive trunck and then they will be cut short and then grow again. The top cut will have to be worked to create a shari in the future but I believe it will turn to be a nice tree.

Nice tutorial. Thanks for sharing.

I've seen it done somewhere else and seeing the pics still makes me cringe LOL. You've got a very nice olive tree there BTW.

My olive is so too.

I collected it from Portugal last summer when I was there.
It got quite a bit stump at the bottom,like aproximatly 20 cm.
This is how it looks:








In this last picture you can see the rosa rugosa there behind,I've cut the leaves to make it backbud,unfortunatly it hasn't budded yet,but it's not dead.

Nemphis,

My advice with olive trees is that you maintain one pair of leaves at the very end of each branch. This will keep the sap running and the budding process will be faster.

David

davids wrote:Nemphis,

My advice with olive trees is that you maintain one pair of leaves at the very end of each branch. This will keep the sap running and the budding process will be faster.

David

Thank you for the advice,I will do so.

Hi what happened to this tree, did you carve it?

Seeing this thread for the first time, just want to comment that I like the screen placed on top of the soil. There may be some unhappy squirrels at my bonsai pots next year.

huh... not seeing any pictures...

david - i have also found that using lava rock as a top dressing discourages the squirrelian population...

Pics are all in 1st message.

yeah jim... i see the icons, but the pics arent showing up...
no big deal...

Kevin, lava rock huh? Probably cuts their lil paws. You are one shrewd mammal!

hi,

why do you need this grid upon the box ?

thx

Hi!

This tree is evolving at its own pace.
It has a new pot, but its still big enough to develop the tree.
I had some problems with a plague of scales and the tree has resented it a bit. But I think that now it has recovered.
The stump has been carved a the tree was prunned and rewired. I think it will develop better next year.
I'll try to take some pictures to place here in the next days.

P.S.: The screen was placed there because my neibours had a cat that liked to s#$t in the bigger pots, so I placed the plastic screen in all those pots to prevent it.

Cheers!

Nunovsky_PT wrote:Hi!

P.S.: The screen was placed there because my neibours had a cat that liked to s#$t in the bigger pots, so I placed the plastic screen in all those pots to prevent it.

Cheers!

Nunovsky_PT wrote:Hi!

This tree is evolving at its own pace.
It has a new pot, but its still big enough to develop the tree.
I had some problems with a plague of scales and the tree has resented it a bit. But I think that now it has recovered.
The stump has been carved a the tree was prunned and rewired. I think it will develop better next year.
I'll try to take some pictures to place here in the next days.

P.S.: The screen was placed there because my neibours had a cat that liked to s#$t in the bigger pots, so I placed the plastic screen in all those pots to prevent it.

Cheers!

Cheers buddy, Ive favourited the thread, would be great to see the progress pics when ready thanks. i recently done the exact same thing to an Olive i picked up cheap from the garden centre, wrong time of year i know but ill be keeping it indoors and warm for the winter, underneath a window sill on a humidity tray. ill put it outside from the start of may....

With olives you should give it time to develop the root base. I've done this to some trees in the beginning of the year and it only started to throw stronger buds in September or so. Some times it lasts a year or so.
But with olives collected from the wild its a necessary process to hep it develop a good nebari in the future. Olives tend to develop big "potato" roots (like we call it here) and this helps to develop those lateral roots necessary for a good root base.

Hi Nunovsky,

In this case it was the root base that attracted me to this Olive, here it is:




I envision something like this in time:




When the tree is growing well i will select branches and carve the top to get more taper, I know what you mean about the 'potato' base under the soil, i had to use an electric saw to cut out more than half the root bound mass and a thick ball of wood. I saw Nellie doing this on an old thread which gave me a plan of action. anyway tree is indoors and warm recovering, ill start a thread as it develops, thanks buddy

Bobby its Awesome!  Or is it Yvonnes tree?

I know of at least two wild olives in my  garden that is going to meet the saw today.  If I were them, ill pick up my skirts and run....

Thanks for the inspiration!

Love Light and Awakening

Andre Beaurain wrote:Bobby its Awesome!  Or is it Yvonnes tree?

I know of at least two wild olives in my  garden that is going to meet the saw today.  If I were them, ill pick up my skirts and run....

Thanks for the inspiration!

Love Light and Awakening

Hi Andre, the fourth pic is just an image of an Olive bonsai I pulled up from the internet. I dont often look to other bonsai trees for inspiration unless they look like real trees in nature and i feel this would be an achievable direction to take my tree in..

Here is an Olive tree in nature that has a similar look to it:



another:

I can'r believe how cheap these trees are in Portugal! I should drive there one day.

Bobby, I started a simialr project in 2012. I do not have an end-of-summer image yet, which is much more mature:
2012:

Jun2014:

Thats looking really good Leatherback, i think i may have came across this image during my researching, i have a few Olive threads bookmarked on eurobonsai