AusBonsai

If you are bent on putting some movement into that trunk, try a screw adjustment Jack. I have one I use successfully on one of my Junipers. It can be put on and given a couple of turns every few days, gradually bending the trunk.

Cut those trunks!

But... but!! How low? Which ones, or all of them? What if the whole thing dies back? I hear olives do that!

Raging Bull wrote:If you are bent on putting some movement into that trunk, try a screw adjustment Jack. I have one I use successfully on one of my Junipers. It can be put on and given a couple of turns every few days, gradually bending the trunk.

Ha! Nice pun. I have one and put it on this morning to see what I could get done with it. Will still need to raffia and wire that trunk as it's already trying to separate at the split.

Hello Beano,

Always more difficult to see a tree with photos, but if it were mine i would be inclined to remove the middle and left trunks, keeping the larger front'ish right trunk only and re-styling from scratch.
I would then be inclined to URO out all those previous trunk cuts.

Just my thoughts,
Kevin

treeman wrote:Cut those trunks!

Cut those trunks..some slack!

Perhaps a shoot will appear lower and I can grow a new trunk putting more shape into it then continue the deadwood up that?

Treeman keeps reminding us that cutting the trunks is a good way to make a tree grow new buds. Hoping won't make buds shoot but pruning is a very reliable method.
In the case of the tall, left trunk you could take more bark off to leave a long jin. That is, in effect, the same as pruning. You should get lots of new shoots from any remaining areas of healthy bark so only peel down to where you'd like to see your new trunk start from.

[/try a screw adjustment Jack. quote] I don't use these any more. I found that the pressure points marked the bark too much and left a scar. Maybe I just left it on too long?

Are you getting confused yet Beano? You will have noticed by now that 10 different growers will all have different opinions on how to style a single tree and they will often be adamant that their way is the only/ best way. truth is that most will be legitimate possible designs but each tree can only have one style. You, as the one who will look at it most, has to make the decision to follow just one plan. Does not matter which but you should always start because not doing anything means the tree does not progress.

Good luck with the design and implementation.

I like your virt so much I did it to the tree. But I do find the left trunk annoyingly straight and taperless. We'll see. Might sit on it for a bit. I'll decide soon enough.

I'm an anaesthetist so I understand the "million ways to skin a cat but my way is best" principle pretty well!

Hi Beano
So glad I passed this headache over to you . You're doing a good job with it
Cheers
Peterb

All these dug olives are the same. That is they have a bulbous base and 1 or more stiff straight shafts going skyward. We are trying to create a bonsai. Bonsai are supposed to be interesting and captivating. What creates interest is movement. There is only one way to deal with these properly and that is to cut off the trunks to a short stub with one or 2 nodes and develop the tree from there. You cannot make a decent tree without a good foundation. It's not ''my'' way, It's ''the'' way. If you cut now you will have something to look at in 4 years. If you leave the straight featureless trunks as is, you will still have straight featureless trunks in 40 years. Making them into jin will give you straight featureless jin which will clash with the rest of the tree later. BTW, you can never kill an olive by pruning.
I won't mention it again.

The Way is a formula that leads to the predictable
Mother Nature is unpredictable and fascinating
There can be much interest in straight lines. dont be afraid


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treeman wrote:All these dug olives are the same.

This is what the next generation of bonsai artists will be saying in 40 years time, upon viewing our trees, due to the complete removal of natures nuances now.

treeman wrote: We are trying to create a bonsai.

Some of us are no longer trying to create a "bonsai" anymore - some of us actually want to create a tree, & have fun doing so.
Would it feel any better, or more acceptable, if we dropped the word "bonsai" and replaced it with Man Lung's definition "Artistic Pot Plants"?

treeman wrote: If you leave the straight featureless trunks as is, you will still have straight featureless trunks in 40 years.

The "feature" of straight featureless trunks, is that they're straight. In 40 years time if there won't be any around, some "bonsai" may in fact, be featureless?

There is always another "way"

Now where's that little symbol that makes everything I write excusable.................oh yes here it is...................

I'm definitely in treemans corner on this one. In saying that, design your tree the way you like.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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How would these have ever been allowed to develop if the "way" of straightness was removed? Not everyone's ideal "Bonsai", but here the straightness ADDS interest.


Don't rob yourself of design options initially, by immediately thinking there is a set rule or "way".

Different strokes I guess. I'm pretty impulsive so we'll see what happens to it over the next month or so. Might turn into something else!