Olive tree Landscape-adori

[LuZiKui]

My neighborhood has a path around it with landscaping that is maintained by the HOA. We have probably 50 olive trees lining the street into the neighborhood. When the olive trees fruit, the crows like to eat them, then they drop olive seeds all over the neighborhood.

I was walking the path and noticed some olive leaves sticking out of another bush (pictures attached). I thought it was weird so I took a closer look and realized that an olive tree had grown right next to another bush, and the landscapers have probably just been pruning the olive tree with the bush for the last 5-10 years. Guessing a crow dropped a seed at some point and it took.

I'm going to talk to the landscapers but I don't think they'll have any issue with me pulling the olive tree out. I noticed a couple of others nearby too so I might have 5 or so to pull out.

I have a few questions if anyone can help me out:

-Can I collect an olive tree in the middle of summer? I know they're robust but never collected one before.
-Should I try to leave the root ball intact with as much soil as possible?
-Are these worth the hassle? They have decent trunks and the leaves look pretty small but I think that might be due to the constant pruning from landscapers.

Thank you!

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Yes you can collect them in summer, take all the field soil away and put them in a very well draining soil, usually in Spain they are collected chopping almost all the field soil and roots treating them as cuttings and then put in plastic bags or greenhouse until they sprout

 

[Shibui]

We also have lots of feral olives in a similar climate so we collect lots of these. We can collect all year round though regrowth can be slow after autumn/ winter collections but they almost all grow eventually.
Most of us bare root at collecting. Olives will survive with almost no roots. Some collectors here 'flat bottom' olives with a chainsaw at collection and they still survive (olives tend to have a large swollen ball shaped base an often won't fit in a pot without reducing the bottom of that swollen ball)
We also chop the tops back hard at collection. Whether that's important is still up for debate but they do survive transplant that way.

Only good trunks are worth collecting as subsequent growth and development is very slow - read many years. Don't waste time and effort on straight trunks or trunks with no taper and no side branches to chop back to.
The first one has some potential but I can't see anything worthwhile in the second except for the practice in transplant and pruning. Pics are not clear enough to tell if the lignotuber is above ground in the second (small lumps either side of the trunk near ground) or if that trunk will widen out below. It is often incredible how big the base of the trunk is under the soil.
Here's a couple I dug last week. A bit smaller than I usually bother with but they were nearby and a client wanted some small olives.

Just the 2 trunks showed above ground but flares out into a flat woody mass below so both trunks are part of the same tree joined by a woody base.


The second looks similar to your second tree - note the lumps on the lower trunk but no actual lignotuber below probably because it was not in the soil for some reason. I would not normally bother with olives like that one.

 

[LuZiKui]

The second looks similar to your second tree - note the lumps on the lower trunk but no actual lignotuber below probably because it was not in the soil for some reason. I would not normally bother with olives like that one.
View attachment 444627

Thank you so much for all of the info. That answers a lot of my questions. I might just try to collect the first one and keep an eye out for any other olives around my neighborhood that might be worth collecting. If I do collect the smaller ones I might just donate them to my club for raffles.

Once you pull them out of the ground do you do anything special care wise? My plan is to plant them in a free draining bonsai soil, keep them moist and leave them in the shade for a month. If they look good I'll go partial sun then full sun. Are pond baskets good for these or should I use something with solid sides while they're recovering?

 

[LuZiKui]

Yes you can collect them in summer, take all the field soil away and put them in a very well draining soil, usually in Spain they are collected chopping almost all the field soil and roots treating them as cuttings and then put in plastic bags or greenhouse until they sprout

Good info, thank you!

 

[Shibui]

Once you pull them out of the ground do you do anything special care wise? My plan is to plant them in a free draining bonsai soil, keep them moist and leave them in the shade for a month. If they look good I'll go partial sun then full sun. Are pond baskets good for these or should I use something with solid sides while they're recovering?

All my collected olives go just under the bonsai benches so that would equate to partial shade. Not sure if that's essential, its just where I usually have space. I'd probably avoid deep shade as olives like sun and may not do well in shade.
Don't expect growth soon after transplant. Olives are not like maples. Some will sprout soon while others can take up to a year after collection to start growing.

Pond baskets are probably OK to grow olives but you'll need to take particular care of watering while they get going after transplant. Drying could kill emerging new roots? I tend to keep transplants a bit on the damp side rather than dry.

If I do collect the smaller ones I might just donate them to my club for raffles.

The experience will be valuable. These expendable trees are the ones we can afford to try out new ideas and techniques on to learn new skills and procedures.

 

[LuZiKui]

Finally got around to collecting one of these trees. It was 100+ degrees at 3PM in the afternoon so I figured there wouldn't be many people out asking me what I was doing. I don't really have a ton of equipment so I took a small garden trowel, folding saw, and pruning sheers with me as well as some plastic bags and water to keep the roots wet.

It came out relatively easily. I was able to cut the larger roots with the folding saw and get some of the smaller roots with the shears. I stuck it in a bag with some water and paper towels and headed home.

When I got home I trimmed the roots up some more and realized it was definitely too long and straight. The top part had some interesting movement to it. It also had a cut scar where it looks like the landscapers tried to cut it and gave up. I cut it and threw it in a little container and if it takes I've got a bonus mame olive.

The main tree is pretty straight. Little bit of a slant to it, but I might ended up chopping it down later on. Probably end up with a shohin semi slanted style tree. Has a nice wide nebari already although not much taper. Put them both in a bonsai mix and I'll keep primarily shaded for a little while.

For those of you that have collected olives, do you recommend I chop of more foliage? Also should I try to keep them in bags to keep the humidity up?