AusBonsai

Rutherglen Landcare group have realised they have a problem with feral olives on the roadsides and have started a project to remove the ferals in their area. Being civic minded individuals, some of our club members offered to help so today we headed out to one of the 'problem' sites to assist. For a while the quiet country air was filled with the sounds of digging and chainsaws. One club (and ausbonsai) member uses an interesting 'digging' technique We made every effort to leave the site in better condition than we found it.

Very impressed with the quality of the stock, and what a fantastic group of civic mind people you are helping out. One of the issues in my opinion of many yamadori is that they are so straight, but I see in your collection many have movemnet which I think is great start. Congratulations.

Very nice dig guys, they look great. Wish our landcare would declare some stuff down here for removal. Looking forward to seeing these develop

Josh

Most of us had filled our quota and stopped for lunch. But one member could not help himself. See that tree sticking up beside the car. At the base of it is Alpine Art, cleaning the soil away from the base Then out with the Alpine olive digging tool A couple of sharpens later and it is out. but that was just the one that was in the way.... He's really after this one! but may have some future potential? and he took both of them home anyway.
Nice stumps...... but what sort of pots will he need for them .

Very impressed with the quality of the stock, and what a fantastic group of civic mind people you are helping out. One of the issues in my opinion of many yamadori is that they are so straight, but I see in your collection many have movemnet which I think is great start. Congratulations.

You are absolutely correct watto. Too many people dig the first one they see. The real art in collecting trees for bonsai is to select good trunks. Fortunately, at this site, we had plenty to choose from and they came in all shapes and sizes.

I have had enough of big bonsai so I concentrated on smaller trunks. Here are some of the ones I took home. That last one just fitted into a polystyrene box but might make a nice larger tree one day.

Nice haul guys, look forward to seeing how they progress.

Around where i live an another area i know of they have been poisoning what ever they are useing is very very effective maybe something new never seen a 100% kill from poison on a large scale before. Also noticed they are very selective like a football size tree is drilled an poisoned yet 1 much larger tree only feet away they dont touch im thinking they poison ones in flower to stop olives from forming is all i can think of, smart thinking really saves the spray i quess

Well done and thanks for posting.
Landcare is a great venue for accessing stock

do you poison the stumps left in the ground?

Ken

Hi Ken , mate the roundup /glyphosate was left at home unfortunately and all the hardwares we passed weren't open before 9.30-10.00.. I will return with the saw and slice the bases and paint neat roundup onto them later in the week .The young guns dug and cut plenty of stump out , i'm too old for that digging caper especially for an olive .

I'll plant mine out into the scoria trays today where there can grow or die , they are sheltered from the hot winds in Summer and most have a few roots attached . .

Cheers Alpine

A few pics of the stock i collected after a clean up.These are back in the bath as i had to move another project along to fit them in .

Cheers Alpineart

Lovely trees, how long do you think it may take to grow enough support roots around the base of the chain sawed ones??

Hi bonsaiLov, most of these had a few roots left on them so they will grow on quite well . Usually a year or 2 is required depending on the foliage left on the trunks .It doesn't take much to feed a weed like the olive , I have killed a few so there is always a chance of them dying even with roots and the base left in tact , the problem being big deep pots hence the flat served 2 purposes , less digging , shallow containers means less weight .

Cheers Alpine

Two of mine are budding up now. I did dig them right out tho
the one that I flat bottomed is not budding yet as it has no roots I guess.
It was a great day and there was still plenty of stock left for next year

I Will have to upload a pic or 2 and get some ideas of some of the Olive nuts out there.

Day after the dig.

The olives I brought home have also started to shoot. Some only have tiny new buds starting. New buds does not always mean the transplant is successful. Sometimes the tree produces new buds from energy stored in the trunk, even with no roots. If new roots do not grow the tree will eventually die. for these ones though.