Damage Olive Styling

[Hawke84]

Hi all,
So I got an Olive Bonsai tree from my mum as a gift, she worked really hard to pick it bless her. its generally a fine tree.... however...
There is a section of the trunk where a very large branch has clearly been removed badly and left a really horrible mark on the trunk.
I am thinking of working it into a deadwood look somehow or carving it to look more natural but im really not sure how to style it.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to style this and make it look a bit more presentable? Its a shame as i really like the tree.

 

[BobbyLane]

you could just leave it. it looks ok.

 

[logan3]

You could use a concave cutter to make it look more like a knothole. Just a thought.

 

[Hawke84]

you could just leave it. it looks ok.

its more the big slice i dont like the half cut thats stopped

 

[Hawke84]

I guess i could try and take the slice all the way through, it will thin the trunk and not sure how easy it will be to remove which is why i think they stopped originally

 

[BobbyLane]

I guess i could try and take the slice all the way through, it will thin the trunk and not sure how easy it will be to remove which is why i think they stopped originally

with what?

 

[Hawke84]

with what?

concave cutter or pruning saw but i dont think the latter is a good idea

 

[BobbyLane]

concave cutter or pruning saw but i dont think the latter is a good idea

yes if it really bothers you, you could made the straight edge a little concave with those cutters. nibble away at it a little. at the soft wood, from the centre outwards

 

[Hawke84]

yes if it really bothers you, you could made the straight edge a little concave with those cutters. nibble away at it a little. at the soft wood, from the centre outwards

its the flatness that bothers me as it looks really unnatural. i may try and nibble away a bit at it and try and make it look more like a branch break and maybe turn into a bit of a deadwood feature. alternatively if i nibble a bit i might be able to encourage a callus to form a bit more to cover the flat edge

 

[Michael P]

Yes, the cut does look like it was done with a machete. Working it with a concave cutter will help; a spherical knob cutter would be better. How big is the trunk? If large enough you could use a Dremel tool to carve a realistic hollow trunk feature. Letting the rest of the tree grow freely will help to close the wound or at least develop a callus around it to make it look old.

 

[Hawke84]

Yes, the cut does look like it was done with a machete. Working it with a concave cutter will help; a spherical knob cutter would be better. How big is the trunk? If large enough you could use a Dremel tool to carve a realistic hollow trunk feature. Letting the rest of the tree grow freely will help to close the wound or at least develop a callus around it to make it look old.

I always get concave and knob cutters mixed up and can never remember the difference. I have both.

so are you thinking of nibbling round the edge down to the cambium then covering to encourage it to heal over? I've done a pic below, so nibble down the edges round the red bit and flatten the pointy bit in the middle where the machete stopped and hollow it a bit? The trunk is about 5" around so not massive. My worry is knowing Olives, they can be really really slow to heal over if they do at all. I really wish they have just left the branch on there to do a kick-ass deadwood feature!

 

[Potawatomi13]

Human carving rarely makes more natural looking tree. Put in decent size trunk developing growing container and let heal and weather naturally. Mom did good. Exercise patience avoid doing bad.

 

[Hawke84]

Human carving rarely makes more natural looking tree. Put in decent size trunk developing growing container and let heal and weather naturally. Mom did good. Exercise patience avoid doing bad.

I agree, I'm only keen to try and encourage the healing process as this looks like an old wound which has stopped healing. If I can do something to encourage it to heal over and weather even if it takes a while I'm in no rush.

 

[Anthony]

Tropics here -

Wood is very, very durable.

When you prune, boost for 1 month and if it responds as the
one down here does, you should get new shoots all over.
Do when the temperature is no lower than 70 deg,F [ 21.1 C ]
day or night,

Allow shoots to extend to 1m or more.

Our olives are the small leaf type, seed from 1986 or so.
Source was South African Herbarium.
A gift, 1/2 kilo bag of seed.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Michael P]

Without being able to see this in person, it's difficult to give advice. But I would try to avoid any live tissue and just concentrate on removing dead wood in the center of the wound, leaving a concave surface. How far you go with this depends on whether you just want the wound to close, or want to create a hollow trunk feature.

 

[Hawke84]

thanks all. I have had a nibble with a concave cutter but the wood is rock hard and its hard to get a grip on it.
I make do some carving with a dremel but this always makes me nervous, ive only done that once before and not on this scale. I might do it in phases.

@Michael P if i shot a short video round it would that help?

 

[Michael P]

Yes, a video or a series of still photos of the trunk from different angles. It's good that the wood is hard because whatever you decide to do will last. I am far from an expert on olives, but more photos will help others who know more than me to give advice.

 

[Hawke84]

@Michael P thanks for the reply. Ive attached a video and a few more photos. I like a challenge but im not sure what direction to go in without making the tree worse. im willing to take any ideas rather than me go at it, any suggestions would be great.

Video

more photos with flash

 

[Michael P]

This one is confusing! I really hope someone with lots of experience with olives will reply.

If this were my tree, for a first step I determine exactly where the edge of the live cambium is. I would remove dead wood up to the live cambium until I had a reasonable final shape for a trunk, then remove a little more to make room for the callus to grow over the dead wood. I would stop at that point and study the tree for a while, until I decide whether to let the callus cover the dead wood and make a normal trunk, or carve much deeper to make a hollow trunk feature.

This way you have not harmed the tree and can keep your options open for the final design.

 

[Adair M]

Human carving rarely makes more natural looking tree. Put in decent size trunk developing growing container and let heal and weather naturally. Mom did good. Exercise patience avoid doing bad.

I agree.