Olive Bonsai

[O'Bonsai]

Hi everyone! I'm new around here and looking for advise as my wife and I are new to the Bonsai world.

We have 1 Japanese Zellkova which we have had awhile now and we were planning on getting an Olive Bonsai. Of course that was until we saw the prices of Olive Bonsai's. Wow I couldn't find anything decent for under 80 euros. So I thought as a beginner I shouldn't spend that much.

Anyway we went down to the local Garden store and found they were having loads of young Olive trees for sale. They had them in various sizes but we went for the 40 to 50cm range. The stem isn't all that thick. Probably around 1 or 1.5 cms (very rough estimate). I guess it had a couple of low branches which were trimmed off in the nursery. Well anyway, we took off a lot of the excess foliage that was growing and its a little empty now but looks a lot nicer than the mess it was.

My question is, how do i thicken the stem? I've seen many people saying that you have to plant it in the ground till you achieve the desired thickness and then cut it off. Well that is not an option for us, we do not have a garden only really bright and sunny apartment windows. So is there any other way that the stem may thicken over time or anything we could do to speed it up? I love olive trees...would have bought one of those large ones which is about 5 foot tall for only 80 euros, if i had a garden.

I will try to load some pictures later today or tomorrow if it is necessary. Got to dig up the cable for the camera first

[Handy Mick]

Hi O'bonsai of Germany, welcome to Ausbonsai,
To thickening your trunk when you have no garden and only an apparent window may be a little difficult, you will certainly need to over pot your tree, also you may want to trunk chop to create taper in the trunk. I'm flying blind hear as we really need a photo.
Germany have some awesome (Walter Paul springs to mind) bonsaiests, it would be worth while finding a club in your area. Google Walter Paul.
Mick

[kcpoole]

Hi O'Bonsai and welcome

The only way to thicken a trunk is to give it time in a bigger pot (or the ground) and then let is grow unhindered, especially letting the lower branches grow wild as they will add girth to the lower trunk.

Ken

[O'Bonsai]

Hey thank you for your replies.

I'm trying to upload the pictures while replying. Sorry for the blurry pictures from my phone. I couldn't find the cable for the camera. As you can see the trunk is still greenish (more light grey as you go down) and smooth. Most of the branches are pretty flexible.

Well a bigger pot would be a good idea i guess as I would like to repot it anyway. I read on a German website, that if you use a "teichtopf" in German or a "pond pot" literally translated ( kinda looks like a Vanda basket, if you guys know about Orchids) the roots tend to thicken and grow more spread out resulting in a thicker trunk. I don't know if this is true as I only found one or two websites talking about it. Do you guys know this method too?

Ok sorry I couldn't upload it to the forum even though my pictures were less than 1mb. But I uploaded it to a flickr account i just created.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65034629@N07/

I measured the base to be almost 2cm across.

[Joel]

A few years ago everybody started using colanders. Sounds like a similar thing. A colander probably does a slightly better job than a pot of the same size but size should be your priority. Nothing is better than the ground.

Joel

[O'Bonsai]

Yes Joel that's right. On the webpage it says, if you can't get hold of a "pond pot" than use a colander from the kitchen

Well if the colander does a better job than a regular pot, then I guess i'll have to go with one. By the way what do you guys think of the lil olive tree? Do you think it'll make a nice bonsai?

[Andrew Legg]

Hi O'Bonsai,

I'd suggest one of two things. First would be to chop it fairly low down and see what sprouts back. This is a luck of the draw thing. Second would be to get out some really heavy wire and bend that trunk to within an inch of it's life! The trunk is too long and sparse for my liking, and by bending it hard you can compact it bringing the foliage down with it. If you look at this link: viewtopic.php?f=129&t=7569 you will see a young olive with which I had to do the same thing. I'm warning you though, it will probably require some heavy wire!!! I'd try to get more movement into that trunk before it thickewns any further otherwise you are sunk!

Good luck with the tree and a warm welcome to Ausbonsai!

Cheers,

Andrew

[O'Bonsai]

Hi!

Thank you for your suggestions. Your olive looks nice. I was advised that the olive bark is too soft for wire and to go with raffia. Yours seems to be doing just fine though. I tried flexing the trunk with some force but it doesn't budge. Maximum 5 degrees flex and that's it. That's not so bad though, I don't mind the broom designs. However, lets say I chop it off, how low should I go? I'm just scared that nothing would grow back on there. What you see in the picture now is nothing compared to how it came. We took off about 75% of the foliage because it just looked out of control and messy.
By the way we're in early summer now, so it's a time of growth for us. Should we wait with the trimming or go right ahead?

[Andrew Legg]

Hi!

Thank you for your suggestions. Your olive looks nice. I was advised that the olive bark is too soft for wire and to go with raffia. Yours seems to be doing just fine though. I tried flexing the trunk with some force but it doesn't budge. Maximum 5 degrees flex and that's it. That's not so bad though, I don't mind the broom designs. However, lets say I chop it off, how low should I go? I'm just scared that nothing would grow back on there. What you see in the picture now is nothing compared to how it came. We took off about 75% of the foliage because it just looked out of control and messy.
By the way we're in early summer now, so it's a time of growth for us. Should we wait with the trimming or go right ahead?

I think determination is the key here. Olives definately do have soft bark, and you should definately wrap with rafia or something to pad out the bark. Bending this tree will take a few years as you would have to bend and wait and bend and wait etc etc, You would also have to replace the wire every so often to avoid wire bite. You need to question how determined you are to get it bent. My feeling is that a cut may work better, but the tree must be healthy before you cut. It's a difficult one!

[O'Bonsai]

Yeah you're right. I better leave the wiring to someone who is more meticulous and patient. I'll transfer it into a colander like pot and wait awhile before i try the chop method. Seems like a good method for me.

[O'Bonsai]

So thanks to your suggestions I think the lil olive tree we bought a couple of weeks ago is on its way to become a bonsai. Ok I'm really hoping it will be

We've repotted it into a pot for ponds (i think that's the correct way in English), trimmed it down a lot more and tried wiring it too. Lost a twig though because I impatiently over bent it!

Oh here is a link for the pots if anyone is interested in buying them.
http://www.birstall.co.uk/products/blag ... skets.html

[O'Bonsai]

Hahaha yeah you're probably right! Thanks. I knew this was too challenging for me! I was just wondering how to change that on Flickr and saw your post. How'd you do that??? That's brilliant. Thanks! Now this topic is more about me bungling around rather than the olive.

[Craig]

Right click the image, click pic properties, copy pic URL, paste that info between the [IMG] here [IMG]
No worries mate , i cleaned out the thread

[O'Bonsai]

Thanks again, that was really nice of you. I'd appreciate any comments you guys got on what I'm doing. I'm no expert. Just a beginner and I'd just like to know what you think about it.