AusBonsai

Hi All,
I have access to some commercial olive trees that are tagged for grubbing out. These guys have the usual smooth bark but I was inspired to have a crack at older trees when I saw an olive Bonsai in Perth. It had a relatively straight trunk but what the artist did was to stimulate budding up the trunk with jin to accentuate it like yours Alpinart.

My trees are still in the ground with full canopy and I am wondering what is the best way to get the water shoots pushing up the trunk rather than from the base.

Firstly, when is the best time of the year/growing season to begin?

Then, would it be better to cut the tree, dig it up, flat bottom it and pot it out?
Or leave it in the ground, cut the canopy down to size keep on rubbing the basal shoots off and hope for water shoots on the trunk. With all the roots pushing I was thinking this would help in forcing buds along the trunk, I could also scour the bark just above where I want to promote the water shoots whilst the tree still has a canopy.
The trunks are probably 300-400mm in Diameter with a large base.

Your thoughts?

Cheers Hatch

Experience over this side is that you can do pretty much whatever you want to olives and they will grow.
We usually dig in late spring when the temps are a bit warmer because these are Mediterranean climate trees rather than cool climate.
There is usually no problem with digging, pruning and flat bottom if you want so there's probably not much point in leaving them in the ground but it would be an option if you want to go that way. To promote shoots on the trunks just prune (either before or at transplant) and keep rubbing off any basal suckers so the energy goes to the buds on the trunk.

The real question is do you really need a bonsai with a 30-40 cm trunk? The base is going to be nearly twice that thick so where will you get a pot to put it into?

And how are you going to lift it? These things a damn heavy.

Great thanks Shibui and Graeme,

I have a few smaller olives that I flat bottomed a few years ago and I am pleased with their progress.

Graeme, you do pose a good question,
I had a look at the olives today and them and think their bases are probably closer to 30-40cm rather than the trunks. Yes they will be heavy but they are going to be culled and I can't let them go to waste. The grower was going to dig them up with a back hoe so moving them will not be an issue.

I have been using pearlite as a potting mix which you can get from Ag suppliers which is used as a water filter for irrigation systems, the pearlite is very light as opposed to river sand or acadama et.al it is angular in structure and porous. Not a bad alternative and easy on the back.

The trees will be trained in cut down 200l blur "olive " drums.

Will keep you posted.

Cheers

Hatch

How did you go with those olives Hatch???

I found a good chainsaw across the base works wonders for Olives, nice flat bases and easy to re-root.