Woa ho Lots of Olives

[kcpoole]

cool bretts
Make pruning real easy ?

Ken

[shibui]

Just a warning for all novice chainsaw operators - beware of touching the tip of the bar on something. This results in kickback which can be painful at best and lethal at worst - even with bosai pruning.

[Bretts]

Collected some more Yesterday. I thought this one was intresting. Bloody well wants to be for the time it took to dig this bugger out
Will take some time to work out some new tops though I imagine But what a great base!

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[Amanda]

Oooh I like that one very much

[kcpoole]

Nice find Bretts

Ken

[Chris]

Very nice brett i love the trunks on olives

[Bretts]

Glad ya's think it was worth the effort

[Graeme]

Nice material you have there mate. Going to have to spend a bit more time in Parkes, instead of just driving through me thinks.

Word of advice, if you dont mind, for what it is worth, but I would be cutting those trunks in half again if they were mine. Trunks look to be fairly straight from the photo's and you appear to be loosing taper. Give them heaps of Seasol and once they are shooting away well get stuck into them with heaps of fertiliser and you should have a damn nice tree in no time at all.

Olives do grow and develop really fast if you feed them well. I am presently tip plucking mine twice a day - when I remember or can,

[Bretts]

Thanks for the Advice Graeme. I agree the trunks need to come down but just not sure how much yet. First guess is the three will come down some what different heights considering which front and direction I guess you could say.
I was figuring it would not hurt to leave the decision for later and let it bud out wherever it wants for now. Decisions decisions

[Graeme]

Knew you'd have a handle on it Brett
Your idea of different heighth trunks is good as well, the decission isn't that hard if you think about it mate, the thickest trunk is the highest and the thinest is the shortest. Of course the difficulty comes in if all the trunks are of similar thickness.

[Bretts]

Ok if ya guna make me think The left trunk in the last pic stands out to me as the dominant trunk. That could work as long as you had strong branches out to the left to balance. Another obvious choice is to use the centre trunk as the main trunk but I fear that will be too static and simple.
If I knew what I was doing I might chop to get new leaders some where about where I have marked red. How many inches above this could you chop to increase chances of possible leaders in the right spot? I would guess the concentration of new leaders will be slightly below the cut?

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[Graeme]

Damn you Brett!! Damn me and my BIG mouth!!! I have had to think as well now!!!

I think your red lines are pretty close to the mark. The one certain is the knob on the third trunk has to go. Only saviour for that is if the small branch poking up on that trunk is still alive. If it is it could be used as a possible apex for that trunk. Using this as your apex would require a bit of carving to introduce taper. I see the middle trunk as the main trunk, with the left one being shorter than the middle. Front of the tree would then be slightly to the left of where it is in the wooden box. However you haven't included a pic of the "back" of the tree so there may also be a front in there somewhere.

Bugger it mate, all to hard to do this stuff from photo's - send the tree to me and I'll just work on it for a few years and see what I can come up with. If nothing eventuates, I'll just burn it for fire wood for you.

Damn, now I have a headache!!!

[Bretts]

Told ya!
That branch you speak of is just alive. I think it had decided it didn't need it under all it's other growth. I had considered using it but think it is safer to just start over as it will take no longer than regrowing the others anyway
The first pic shows the tree from the other side before it got buried That and coming around more as you say are all options. The other pic does show around left more but maybe too much.
Next time you come through I will take you there and you can dig your own

[Bretts]

By Brett"
Hey Matt if I find a better turtle back I will sell you this one.

I never got around to mentioning that I think I have found better than this one but I haven't collected them yet so I better hold onto this for a little bit more
But maybe next spring?

It has only been about 5 months since collecting But I was thinking of giving this a trim and wire agian to put in the group contest over at wee trees. But as I feared, when I dragged it out it did not have enough growth where I wanted and also I have almost lost a few of the smallest trunks at the back.
Although I would like to trim the top a little at least I think the best thing is lots of water fert and even more sun (less congested area)

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Only some of the worst olives I collected are still sulking so it seems I got my priorities right this time
One thing I found is that the ones I left in full spring sun all sprouted back out great but the ones I put in more shade have taken longer or are still sulking. Yet at least one other member found the oposite
I will take some candid shots of the others as well.

[Greth]

Mine are under shadecloth, and nearly all have taken very well since being lifted.
Our big paddock olive - this a full grown tree with massive trunk, is fruiting for the first time since we have been here. Usually we have stock grazing which prevents it from feeling fruitish. So looking forward to a humungous crop of baby olives, after I have picked and preserved every one I or the teenage son can reach.
Will have some fun with different preserve recipes and herb flavours...