Fruiting olive - any good for bonsai?

[kvan64]

There is no wild/yamadori olive in Brisbane. I felt the itch for a while... Last weekend, someone offered this dig. At first I thought it would be a hard job as it was almost taller than the roof (over 5m). But once I started to dig, it became loose as soon as I cut all the side roots. There is not tap root at all.
I just did another rough trim and potted it. Not sure how it will turn out. I know that the leaves of fruiting olives are larger and not as shiny as the wild olives. Anyone has experience with fruiting olives?

[RogerW]

They are as good as any other tree. Very hardy and respond well to pruning. The Europeans use them a lot.
Roger

[Grant Bowie]

They are as good as any other tree. Very hardy and respond well to pruning. The Europeans use them a lot.
Roger

And they like heat, but Mediteranean type dry heat. How do they go on the tropical Brisbane.

Grant

[Nate.bonsai]

It may be a good idea to lop that tall main trunk off altogether. Otherwise the tree might sprout from right up the top, which will be of no use to you.


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[Graeme]

Grant, I have a few up here on the Fraser Coast and they are doing well. I have been told they wont fruit up here, but does that really matter? I probably keep mine a little bit dryer than I have seen them down South (I'm a lazy waterer) but this might help them. I collected mine in Perth when I lived there and I did lose one of the big ones not long after I moved back here, but I think that was entirely my fault as I was a bit savage with a repot.

As for if your Olive will be any good for Bonsai kvan64, remember, all those "wild" ones were domestic olives originally. Go for it, I reckon they are great things. Nearly as good as a fig

[shibui]

It may be a good idea to lop that tall main trunk off altogether. Otherwise the tree might sprout from right up the top, which will be of no use to you.

That might be an issue with other species Nate but this is an olive. I spend 90% of my time on olives rubbing shoots off the trunk and base of the tree. If not budding low down on olives is an issue in Sydney it certainly isn't down here.

[Nate.bonsai]

True and generally the same here Shibui. Another reason for removing the very long main trunk is that it is too long (imo) for the size of the base and should go from a design perspective in any event.


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[kvan64]

thank you everyone for the inputs. It's good to know that they do fine in Brisbane as bonsai. The reason I asked was because even though I have a couple of collected wild olive stumps sent by a couple mates from Melb and they are doing ok, I was thinking that the fruiting olives maybe different.
Yeah Nat, I may consider to refine the design after I got new shootings. The wild olive stumps I have actually shoots really low like Shibui mentioned. They actually grow weaker up top.
Hop this one turns out fine as a bonsai. Please post some pics of your "fruiting olives" bonsai if you have any for motivation.
Cheers
DK