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First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 30th, 2016, 12:50 pm
by fishnfreak
Hi all, first post and a beginner not only at yamadori but bonsai keeping altogether.

My local council here is routinely poisoning any olive trees they can access easily enough, and there are some very old, very thick and impressive olives which are now dead.....

I managed to find one, a stout little survivor of a previous attempt at ringbarking, but it left me with a nice trunk with deadwood but still live at the top. It was growing into a rocky cliff face which may be why it hadnt been poisoned yet.

As i removed it i found the tap root ran along the rockwork instead of down into the hard rock and clay soil.

In any case, i followed the routine as documented by the experienced collectors and i chose the face and layout, flatbottomed it, bevelled the edge and is currently soaking for 24hrs in Seasol before being positioned in a shallow tray filled with washed coarse sand.

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 30th, 2016, 2:07 pm
by Webos
You deserve that beer! For now, you won't have to bother with styling until you have a pot full of roots. Might take 2 years for this tree to recover and any heavy work on it between now and then will be a risk to the health of the tree. In the meantime, read books, study bonsai websites, find some bonsai friends to work on trees together and get some basic techniques under your belt. 2 years will fly by and you'll have the skills to tackle a beast like this!

Adam

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 30th, 2016, 2:15 pm
by bonsaibruce
Howdy, your olive will be tough enough to survive if you can not mess with it.
Seriously you should look at joining a local club, they are full of advice. Advice from this forum will be more specific if you have your location a little less generic. Even advice for Adelaide could be different from the Hills.
Happy bonsai,
Bruce

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 30th, 2016, 3:03 pm
by Watto
Welcome.
Congratulations on digging some great looking stock. The others have given the best advice (and probably the most difficult to follow) and that is it must be left to grow some decent root system and of course some foliage. Sometimes they shoot quick, and sometimes slow so don't be discouraged if there is no instant success.

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: April 7th, 2016, 12:44 pm
by fishnfreak
Couple weeks in and i had to repot into something that held a deeper bed of sand. I had no confidence in the shallow tray i was using.
I bought a large tub, drilled holes in the bottom and lined the bottom with flyscreen, then washed dolomite and finally 300mm if washed propagation sand.
I quickly transferred the stump and itll stay here now for the rest of the recovery period....mainly because i cant move it!

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: April 7th, 2016, 1:10 pm
by BikesandBonsai
Awesome looking forward to seeing this tree in the future. I've just potted a largish one up last night, they make awesome Bonsai

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: June 12th, 2016, 11:15 am
by fishnfreak
First update, 3 months in and still no shoots.

Should i be fertilising at all? Still green under the bark, so at least there is still some life in her yet.

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: June 12th, 2016, 1:22 pm
by CraigM
Hi, wouldn't fertiliser until you see strong growth. Olives can sulk for ages before shooting, would wait until spring and see. Watch the watering, it's not using much at present. Where in Aus you based?

Where the tree is at present does it get any sun or is it shaded?

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: June 12th, 2016, 9:15 pm
by LordVader
CraigM wrote:Hi, wouldn't fertiliser until you see strong growth. Olives can sulk for ages before shooting, would wait until spring and see. Watch the watering, it's not using much at present. Where in Aus you based?

Where the tree is at present does it get any sun or is it shaded?
I have had one sulk for two years. Randomly one day I go out to see a full on shoot fest.
Unsure if it's still a practise in use, but once long ago, people cut the tuber in half and with some ply, trace the shape and cutting the shape about an inch or two bigger. Score the bottom bark on an angle and screw the board to the tree. Some people swore by the use of root powder others say it isn't necessary just in the same way some would soak the tuber for a week in seasol. I think I have two that was done this way.

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: June 13th, 2016, 7:37 am
by Watto
Patience, patience, patience. Its still the hardest lesson in bonsai, but you should just wait. Spring may bring some pleasure, but if it doesn't you will need a little more patience.
If you are looking for something to "work" on, go to the local nursery a get something else.

Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 8th, 2017, 2:21 pm
by fishnfreak
I definately took your advice onboard Watto, even if i neglected to answer your post.....sorry mate!

I was doing my weeding after returning from a NZ fishing expedition, out the front of my house when i noticed an Olive seedling about 20cm tall healthily growing amongst the everpresent weeds on the nature strip.
I had a brainwave and ducked over to the collected tree thts been sitting for almost a year, and i found SHOOTS!!![OK HAND SIGN][OK HAND SIGN][OK HAND SIGN]

The negative is that they are low on the planned trunk and not where i had (unwisely) hoped they would appear....the tree has also only sent roots out on half of the trunk, but itll be left for another year till i repot it into a growout box

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Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 26th, 2017, 10:58 am
by fishnfreak
Image

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Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 27th, 2017, 5:58 pm
by fishnfreak
Screamin' along. Plenty of shoots popping out, and slowly getting more higher up on the branch.
It seems to be loving the 3x a week Powerfeed and Seasol.

Should i be pinching out the not needed shoots or let it grow for now?Image

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Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 28th, 2017, 10:53 am
by Nate.bonsai
I have a big old olive similar. I would pinch out the unneeded, as they can otherwise take a while to thicken up - as I found out when I let everything grow out for the first season. Now, with unneeded removed, the desired branches are thickening much much faster.


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Re: First shot at yamadori Olive....

Posted: March 28th, 2017, 1:41 pm
by fishnfreak
Thanks Nate. Just the advice i was after

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