Collecting olives

[Shibui]

My local club hosted dig days - the first a couple of weeks ago and another this morning. Target species is Olives as they are an environmental weed species in the area.
Our Secretary went to the trouble of obtaining permission from the local Shire who manage this road reserve. We were a little surprise when permission was granted with few conditions as many local governments are reluctant to allow activities they don't understand but, in the spirit of not looking gift horses in the mouth, we jumped at the opportunity.

On the first outing the young and enthusiastic members took some larger specimens but this dig was mostly more sensible members taking smaller trees.

Some photos from our dig site:
Feral olives of all sizes. You don't need to go far to find one. Club secretary preparing to extract another one.




Some of the stumps I extracted

 

[Shibui]

Back home and it's time to have a closer look at the trees.
Olives at this site seem to have way more lateral roots than other places we have dug which is a bonus. I would normally 'flat cut' collected olives by sawing through the widest part of the lignotuber and planting the stump as a giant cutting. These trees already have plenty of lateral roots growing around the widest part of the lignotubers so it is much less stressful sawing through the base.
Before:

After:








Some of these little ones were only dug in order to make space to get at a more desirable trunk but, not being one to waste anything, everything has been pruned and potted up.

More of the medium trunks tomorrow.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

Wow. Those look great. How many did you end up with?

 

[Arizona bonsai]

What is the survival rate of these?

 

[leatherback]

Looks like a lot of fun !

 

[zens]

What is the survival rate of these?

Tough as nails. Very unlikely to die if done at the correct time of year, even if the bottom is flat cut with no roots.

I have successfully rooted cuttings of branches thicker than my arm and flat cut 2ft wide olive bases with no roots and leaves and they have taken off.

The thing to note re flat cutting tho the plant is likely only going to have enough stored energy to do it once.

 

[fredman]

Target species is Olives as they are an environmental weed species

WOW that is beautiful mate. That looks like the African wild olive to me...?
They make lovely bonsai.

 

[Ravaginggoatman]

Awesome, absolutely love olives they are so responsive to bonsai technique, would like to see some updates in the future.

 

[Shibui]

How many did you end up with?

13 all up. Plenty more out there but I don't have room for more. Also plenty of bigger trunks but I'm past lugging great, heavy bonsai around. Some of the younger (sillier) club members dug big stumps. I just looked and walked past.

What is the survival rate of these?

I was actually surprised by the number of lateral roots growing from the lignotubers. Even the smaller trees had plenty of side roots. Some places we have dug olives the only roots are from the bottom. As @zens pointed out, collected olives are often 'flat cut' at collection. Cut horizontally through the widest part of the lignotuber. Even if there are no roots, the stumps are planted as giant cuttings and most of them root and grow on. See some of the pics of the flat cuts I did on these and imagine no lateral feeder roots.
With all the side roots on these I'd expect 99% survival rate.

WOW that is beautiful mate. That looks like the African wild olive to me...?
They make lovely bonsai.

Olives in this area seem to be descended from early plantings of European olives. These have leaves with silver backs which also points to European genetics. Leaves are likely small due to environmental factors - low rainfall, poor soil, etc.

 

[Shibui]

Some shots of the 'larger' ones I brought home. See final photo with tape measure for scale.
These spent yesterday afternoon and last night soaking in buckets of water until I had time to clean off the soil and chop them with the chainsaw.