AusBonsai

Hi all, I was after some advice on where to go with this Olive? Obviously this tree has a long way to go in developing the branches and the ramification of them.

I've since potted the Olive into a large grow box with the intent to work on the tree for a good couple of years.

Any ideas?

hi mate

nice bit of stock to start with, I think you do need to remove one of the trunks though, there are two there that are of equal thickness and all are of the same length, if this were mine I would look at jinning the right thicker trunk, and keeping the left and middle to create a twin, I would look at lowering the thinner trunk by about 2 thirds, and the thicker one by around half this will help in the regrowing of the trunk line with taper and also movement. being an olive you can use deadwood as a feature as they take carving no problems!

let us know how you go

jamie

nice bit of stock to start with, I think you do need to remove one of the trunks though, there are two there that are of equal thickness and all are of the same length, if this were mine I would look at jinning the right thicker trunk, and keeping the left and middle to create a twin, I would look at lowering the thinner trunk by about 2 thirds, and the thicker one by around half this will help in the regrowing of the trunk line with taper and also movement. being an olive you can use deadwood as a feature as they take carving no problems!

let us know how you go

G'day Jamie, I reckon that is definitely the way to go! Should I wait until spring before I cut and resize the trunks? And with the right hand trunk to be jinned, should I strip the bark off now and let it weather for 12 months before attempting the jin work?

Thanks for the advice mate!

hi mate,

its hard to say without having the tree in front of me, up here I generally am not concerned about timing because most of my trees are constantly growing with my climate. in saying that some do slow down and those that do I tend to wait until they are actively growing again as this will aid in the recovery of the tree. if it is actively growing and you are confident doing the work wont hurt then go for it, if not, hold off, its not that far from spring.

as for the jin mate, because it is an olive they can take a long time to roll over, in saying that you want to do jin work so there will be dead wood and its not like your trying to heal a scar so you could definately do the jin and carve work now without to much issue. I would do the carving/jinning straight away as if you strip it then wait it will dry out and become difficult to work with. the wood will weather over time anyways so if you hold off then carve you are really only prolonging the weathering effect so best to carve/detail when you strip, this way it will weather and you wont need to wait as long.


jamie