AusBonsai

A mate gave me this little olive the other week. I like the trunk and surface roots. But I'm not sure what to do with it. My main issue is that big fat branch on the left, which is out of proportion with the rest.

I photoshopped the branch out, but as you can see it looks kinda weird..

I'm also scared of cutting it off because it might die back. Any thoughts? Am I stuck with a broom style here?

Ben, i know little about olives but i'm sure they backbud fairly well, so if you were to go with what your suggesting, i'd say you'll get alot of new shoots which you can use to start making branches to fill the emptyness left from removing the said branch. Be sure to keep all the roots buried at this stage of development so they grow nice and fat , have fun

Thanks Craig.

Yeah I guess it's worth taking the plunge and lopping it off. I'd just heard some stuff about olives, that the budding back can be really unpredictable, and that cutting off large branches can result in bad die back.

But I guess, nothing ventured, nothing gained..

Hi Ben
I would chop where you have, but turn it around so the first branch you have becomes the new leader. This will give a bend in the trunk there as a nice direction change.

Ken

Thanks Ken, good call! maybe wire that branch so the bend isn't so severe..

Hi Ben,
This is one suggestion.
Repot on an angle and lower the left branch as your first branch.

Regards Ray

Hey Ben,

I'd head out somewhere along these lines to make a thin elegant tree . . . . .
Scuse the rubish virt!

Thanks a lot for the tips, Mackray and Andrew. I hadn't even considered a literati sort of thing. Thanks for the mock ups!

I found this photo taken from the other side, and I was surprised that the heavy branch somehow looked less ugly from the back, and more in keeping with the line of the trunk: Going with that as the new front I just did this quick photoshop job which seems quite do-able, and fairly pleasing to the eye.. What do you reckon? Is this a better front?