Can I Bring This Olive Back From the Dead?

[stoverock]

Hi bonsai lovers,

There’s a huge olive stump/growth at the base of a tree at work. I’ve never seen it with foliage and I’m wondering if it’s even alive. I’ve dug down a bit and found some old roots but there’s some rot on the trunk. Would it be possible to dig it up, saw it off, and get it to root and grow? I’m in Napa, CA and these things grow like crazy here.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Not if dead. Surely some member of local club or nursery has more likely actually growing tree to be gotten? Please add location to profile.

 

[leatherback]

If it is partof a living tree, and this segment is still alive, then yeah, often this works.
Of course, if really dead it will not.

 

[sorce]

these things grow like crazy here.

So this endeavor is akin to going to the Netherlands and buying a plastic tulip from a shop next to a graveyard?

Perhaps you can saw off a better living limb?

Sorce

 

[PaulH]

Looks pretty dead.

 

[stoverock]

So this endeavor is akin to going to the Netherlands and buying a plastic tulip from a shop next to a graveyard?

Perhaps you can saw off a better living limb?

Sorce

I'm hoping it's alive, but I don't know how to tell. Can i check under the bark for a green layer like with Junipers? This one is just so interesting that I'm hoping to salvage it.

 

[sorce]

I don't know that I'd go scratching through anything without a scion to graft to it.

Dig around it for investigative purposes?

Sorce

 

[leatherback]

With a knife point lift a bit of the bark. It will be very obvious if it is dead. white/green/yellow and sappy: Alive. Brown: Dead.

 

[River's Edge]

Hi bonsai lovers,

There’s a huge olive stump/growth at the base of a tree at work. I’ve never seen it with foliage and I’m wondering if it’s even alive. I’ve dug down a bit and found some old roots but there’s some rot on the trunk. Would it be possible to dig it up, saw it off, and get it to root and grow? I’m in Napa, CA and these things grow like crazy here.

And the rest of the story is? Why are the photos cutting off the trunk?

 

[stoverock]

And the rest of the story is? Why are the photos cutting off the trunk?

The rest of the story has yet to be written. The photos are of the stump, not the main trunk of the tree. The tree itself is easily 20 feet tall; I’m just hoping to collect the stump.

 

[leatherback]

Olive trunks are routinely cut in random pieces with a chainsaw and planted to grow rough stock for bonsai.
IF the swelling is alive, it should be able to live through what you have in mind.

 

[Cadillactaste]

A stump, which has never produced vegitve growth... most likely isn't worth a second thought. Olive back bud like crazy...yet there are no signs of any past branching coming from it.

Kind of like driving past roadkill...its past it's prime.

 

[River's Edge]

The rest of the story has yet to be written. The photos are of the stump, not the main trunk of the tree. The tree itself is easily 20 feet tall; I’m just hoping to collect the stump.

But is the rest of the tree alive? Because that is the hidden part and you have neglected to mention that detail. Perhaps it slipped your mind that the inquisitive would like to know.

 

[Cadillactaste]

But is the rest of the tree alive? Because that is the hidden part and you have neglected to mention that detail. Perhaps it slipped your mind that the inquisitive would like to know.

My assumption...the tree it's near, is a different species. Could be wrong though.

 

[Forsoothe!]

As River says, if that is part of the adjacent live tree, then it will sprout if the main trunk is chopped. To be safe, I'd chop the main trunk to zero, dig it and pot it up, sink the pot in a good exposure (full sun, good soil), and wait. Or, if you're lazy and/or timid just chop the main trunk to zero and see what happens. I say for broke, the most you lose is a little time. The possible win is worth it. No guts, no glory.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

But is the rest of the tree alive? Because that is the hidden part and you have neglected to mention that detail. Perhaps it slipped your mind that the inquisitive would like to know.

I used to know a college professor in Ohio who bragged that he raised a large family by picking up roadkill on his daily commute to work. Fresh roadkill is fair game, it’s when it sits for a day or more that it goes bad.