olive yamadori !!!! think i'm hooked!!!

[Goff]

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Hi people!! i'm very new in the bonsai world and only got my first bonsai fathers day last year.. But i just love them.. i joined a club, read a whole lot!!!
Two mths ago i dug up my first olive. Now i have 13!! these are the ones i like best but i now have a few questions.

1. a few are starting to shot and i want to know when do i start feeding them. I use seasol every second week.
2. What do people out there feed them at this stage??
3. Any virtuals would be appreciated.
4. Are these stumps any good.. i think so but what is your opion
Everyone keep up the good work. i HAVE GOT SO MUCH GOOD INFO FROM THIS SITE

[GavinG]

Steady on, steady on! If you get 13 trees every two months for the next 147 years you'll end up with 11466 trees, which might be a few too many...

Seriously, you've chosen stumps with some good shape and taper to them. I'd ease into feeding them very gently, as the roots are tender - ask at the club, they'll know what happens in your area. After the shoots have grown 10 or 15cms, choose which shoots you want for branches and the leader, and wire the angle you want as they leave the trunk, then wire the ends upwards, and grow them long and strong, so you don't get spindly little branches and a spindly top sitting on a strong trunk. Then cut them back hard next year and do it all over again. Take time to develop the structure.

Nice hunting - I'd have any of them.

Gavin

[Andrew Legg]

Cracker stumps mate! Don't be in too much of a rush to feed them, and if you do, keep it weak for while. It is probably a bit early to start with virts just yet as you never really know where they are going to sprout. Give them a year or two to strengthen up and then start to worry about designs and virts etc. Other thing is that you should be patient. I had one tree that took two years before it sprouted!!!

[Goff]

Gavin my plan it to dig a a few more around 20. Then this time next year I'll pick
Maybe 5 I really like and then try to sell rest. Then I'll have some cash to buy pots for the ones I got
Or maybe a more advance tree.

[TheNumber13]

I have also collected a handful of olives, most about 14 odd months ago. Mine have all done quite well, with only one that is not rooting or shooting well yet. They could be doing better, but they are alive, sending out shoots, and have enough roots to move on with

My process:
-Soaked in strong seasol mix for at least 2 days.
-Pot in a standard mix, whatever I had around worked well. (local dirt, some sand, some organic mix, I wasn't very strict.)
-A few seasol waterings.
-I could have watered more frequently. They often went a week or several with no attention.
-Tiny bit of osmocote, only once I think.
-Repotted about one year on, trimmed back large roots to focus on developing finer ones.

I would say I was about as slack as you can be. Since they can do so well with very little care, I will not be varying this too much for future collections. A tiny bit of extra fertilizer, some extra seasol waterings, and a better dirt mix is all I will change.
Take from this info what you will, as I certainly did not do it perfectly, but keeping the feeding weak to begin with is advice that makes sense to me.

[Goff]

Number 13. Have you any photos of your olives??

[TheNumber13]

My stock is not as impressive as yours are - the former groves I have access to are still quite young.
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There were a few more shoots that got removed before these photos. With such little care or attention I think they did alright.All I know is they are still alive and growing, so i'm happy

[Webos]

Great stock... You obviously have a good eye for quality stumps and also a good knowledge of how low to chop them. Have these been flat bottom chopped or are the bases still like a big bulb? Chopping the base off will give you a lot more options when it comes to pot depth in the future, but it will also set you back a season or two while the tree recovers and sprouts new roots.

I too would have any of these in my collection, they're excellent!

As far as care goes, olives seem to have the ability to survive the very roughest of treatment and hardly blink an eye.

Webos

[Goff]

Webos depends how the come out the ground.. Some have been flat cut and some I have left the root ball in tacked ( just taken of the big solid roots ) but both methods are working for me.. Most of them are starting to shoot..

[Goff]

Webos what you feed young olives??

[GavinG]

"What do you feed young olives?"

2 parts gin, one part dry vermouth...

G