Help styling my Olive bonsais.

[Aiki_Joker]

I don't think you will find those guy wires will be very effective.

The way to train olives is to let shoots grow out to 6 inches or so, and wire them while the shoots are still soft. Position them and put in soft curves. In about 6 weeks, they will have ligified, and the wire will start cutting in. Remove the wire. And cut back. Cut back to the first two or three nodes. Yes, you will cut of some of the branch you wired! Let it grow out again, and rewire. After 6 weeks or so, remove wire and cut back.

Repeat!!!

Olives are one of the fastest bonsai to develop!

Brilliant advice will bear it in mind

 

[Aiki_Joker]

I love the shape of this olive especially with the slanting trunk.
Just wondering if ur branches style should follow that angle or else why not have a straight trunk? What soil is it in?

It's in coarse gravel with about 15% compost if if remember correctly

 

[Aiki_Joker]

It's in coarse gravel with about 15% compost if if remember correctly

For the trunk angle I am trying to replicate some of the wild olives that grow here in the mountains I adjusted the angle slightly it was leaning over too far.

The wild olives here in the mountains have a flat top like an African Savanna style

 

[Aiki_Joker]

To achieve this flat top without too much branch bending the angle was slanted. From the comments above I thing these guy wires will have to be in place a long time ha ha ha :0)

 

[Adair M]

I am late to this thread and I haven't got beyond this post by Adair M .... so I might regret jumping in at this point .... but I must. This quote says everything about the subject so far:


So there's no purpose in being skittish about getting those root choppers to work. It isn't even a question of realizing it a few years later. By the next season from today you'll wish you'd done it now. Adair's words and picture are a great inspiration. Actually, I don't like the olive as bonsai, but seeing the photo of all the roots ...... hmmmmmm ..... I may have to rethink my opinion of the thing.

This is the kind of olive I like:



Here's a picture as we were starting to repot the thing from the old rectangle pot. It's supported by a strap run thru a ceiling joist. This was just before we took about two inches of trunk out from under! Using hammer and chisel! Two hours of hard work!