AusBonsai

Hi All,

I have a question thaty I can't seem to find an answer to. I have a lovely olive that I bug out. it is abour 40cms at the base and tapers to about 10cms about 50cms up. Above that it has two trunks splitting out, each about 5cms thick and extending up a further 40cms with little taper. Now what has happened as that the main trunk with good taper has beautiful flaking and cracked bark, but has only one branch growing out of it. there are quite a few right at the base, and the balance of the branching is coming from the two top sections which do not display the old bark. Here there is prolific growth.

So my question: How do I encourage growth from the old bark section? Is it just a matter of time? They were dug out ab out a year ago now, and it has been suggested that if I get no growth there, the trunk will just die back to a point that supports enough size for the top growth. It is such a lovely taper, and I am desperate to get growth on the sides lower down!!!! HELP

Cheers,

Andrew

Hello Andrew Legg can we see a pic

I have heard by tapping the trunk at the point you want new growth with the point of a small rock hammer.

Hi Andrew , i have an old flakey trunk here which i collected last season and flat cut the base and reduced the height by 60-80 % it has good taper but very straight . It has prolific growth over the main trunk from the bottom to the top . It sits in a fully glazed square pot {not a bonsai dish} and is maintained quite wet , they thrive if sat in wet bed or sand trays after collecting .The upper section has smooth bark as does yours however i did cut loose with a chainsaw and created some movement and removed the bark to roughen/age the upper section for future carving .No drama's with shooting from the base i have removed large amounts of selected foliage on 2 occasions now and it requires another good stripping .I will post a pic here tomorrow for you to see , a pic of your olive would be helpful .It may be a different species however its the only rough barked olive i have found here where i collect them from .Cheers Alpineart

Hi Andrew here are some pics showing the new growth lower down .Note the dead foliage in the tray that was removed 2 weeks ago .This was flat cut with a chain saw and potted up .It looked like it was dead for about 6 months then i burst into life and continues to shoot . Its about 1m high and the base was 300mm in diameter ..Hope this helps .Cheers Alpineart

OK guys, here it is. This is an old photo and does not show the new growth. I have penned this in in green.
The blue shows the current trunk line. The red the two chops i did (both of these were sprouting like crazy from their tops). The green shows the new growth.
Luckily there is a new trunk growing in the perfect place, but other than that, just the one branch mid way up and the rest of the growth is at the base as I would expect.

Scuse the terrible virt, but I have not got a mouse here!

Got the chance to pull it out from the fence and take a photo this weekend. It has an extra branch that I did not think it had before. Nice! On the photo, I am holding down the bottom growth which is of no use, and my daughter is holding back the first branch which actually has tow branches coming out of the same spot (shown by the arrow on the left). The other branch is shown by the arrow on the right and I am holding up what will become the new leader, which is growing out from behind the thick deadwood.

Thoughts?