Big Olive Directions...

[BirchMan]

Hi All,

Well i got this rather large wild olive out of the sandy situation it was in last weekend, took me 3 visits and the purchase of a new mattock but the sharp blades on the latter soon had it up. The thing that was keeping it in the ground can be seen bulging off to the left of the beer in the second photo; a partially termite-eaten portion of old lignotuber. I showed it to my local bonsai nursery-ist and he suggested i keep said tuber as a carveable feature, but i'm not so sure, given the stump weighs around 50kg. My initial plan was to chainsaw it at the end of the taper, say at roughly the point where the Gage Roads Wahoo (tm) sits in the photo with the beer..

I reckon this could be a great tree, but i just need some opinions on where to make the bottom cut, given it's been in seasol for about 5 days and i don't have any boxes big enough for it as is.

What do you guys reckon? This is particularly aimed at the South Australians, aka olive experts

By the way it's not the greatest shot of the secondary mass, i can get that on the weekend if anyone thinks it really might enhance the tree, but the overall plan is to plant it this weekend.

[Pup]

Birchman , look at your first photo, as the stump lines up with the top of the limestone, then cut straight across about 5 or 10 cm below that line.

I would not worry about carving.I would however reduce it to one trunk. Find the one with the best movement and go with that one. Seal the edges of the cut on the trunk and do that cut on an angle not straight across as they are now.

Cheers Pup

[bodhidharma]

If you are having a problem potting it you could lay out some timber in your backyard, nail it together, fill it with soil and plant it in there until you make up your mind as to its future. Lay some weed mat under it first to contain the roots. Gives you time to ponder its future. As Pup said though reduce it to one trunk. I would be inclined to lose both trunks and create a new leader.

[RogerW]

Dont throw away the lower stump as you may be able to use it for a cutting.

[BirchMan]

Nice work fellas, couple of new ideas there as i thought might happen. I'll definitely take it down to 1 trunk if it goes that far, but bodhidharma raised a new possibility of creating even better taper with a new shoot that i hadn't considered.

I'm glad that you all haven't called me crazy for wanting to separate the main trunk line from the "bulbous" section, thus, "so let it be written, so let it be done" this weekend.

...boy it's been a long day at the WACA....

[Chris]

Hello BirchMan here is an olive i flat cut this morning

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IMGP0002.JPG

[BirchMan]

Nice stock Chris, plenty of movement there. Must've been a bit of a shrub.

[Chris]

I found it about 5km out of Minlaton S.A coming home from my folks it's a wild olive with nice small leaf. I think the middle trunk has to goooooooooooooo They stunt due to the sandstone in the area.

[BirchMan]

Take your time, just looking at it i think the middle trunk is the only one that can work with the base as it is. Probably would mean taking all the others off though.