Help with olive choices

[maroun.c]

These tree are from an old olive trees field that were removed few years back and are being sold. Most are way too big for me to handle but following ones I believe are manageable except with one with a base around 50 cm which is a bit too big.bit has nice movement... I can put them in bonsai pots as they are removed from soil. Or just pick up 1-2 per week as I can pot...
Appreciate advice on my choices..
This one is mostly dead but is a beautiful piece of deadwood yet has a few suckers at the base one emerging from top of the trunk. Price is a steal, think its worth playing with it ?


And the one a bit too big but with beautiful trunk movement.

All have beautiful bark. They have been prunes recently hence the lack of too much foliage on them.
Appreciate any advice on which to get. In for taking all.
Also how much do u think I can reduce the wood at the base if too wide for a pot? Can u cut with a chainsaw to reduce even if that means very few or no roots are left? Willing to risk if chances are reasonable

 

[Shibui]

You should be aware that olives usually bulge out just under the ground. The base of the trunk could easily be 2-3 times the thickness of the trunk above ground.

Not sure that I would collect any of these if they were here, let alone pay for them.

It is perfectly possible to chop the base of an olive. We have club members who collect olives with the chainsaw instead of digging out all the roots. They are usually cut through at the widest part of the swollen part of the trunk. I have also 'flat bottomed' a few of the olives I collected - using the chainsaw to cut through the widest part before potting up. It does not seem to matter whether the stump has roots or not. They still seem to be able to survive but no method is 100% successful. I would expect a small number of casualties when chainsawing.
Cutting the stem above the swollen part is not recommended. I know olives can grow from large cuttings but none have survived for me.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the input. Other than the one with the trunk movement the others are rather small in comparison and even with a bulge double the trunk thickness should be ok to manage I will skip for sure the thicker ones but most others are around 20 cm in diameter which I guess should be ok?
How about the dead one with suckers going through the top ?
Any ones that the shape is a strict no ?
Price range is 40-150 usd which compared to other trees is way too cheap.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

How about the dead one with suckers going through the top ?

I can't tell from the photo if the suckers are growing from the trunk or up from somewhere else. If they are growing from the trunk then it's not dead. If it is alive, then I think you'll need to do a lot of carving. If it's dead then the price send to be high for firewood.

 

[maroun.c]

I can't tell from the photo if the suckers are growing from the trunk or up from somewhere else. If they are growing from the trunk then it's not dead. If it is alive, then I think you'll need to do a lot of carving. If it's dead then the price send to be high for firewood.

Its a loose sucker going up though the cracked deadwood. Plan is to grow it and build a tree on the nice dead wood in the base if that has any potential?

 

[BonjourBonsai]

Any ones that the shape is a strict no ?

I like #3 and the last one with the bend.
The others don't have much base flair or other interesting characteristics.

Its a loose sucker going up though the cracked deadwood. Plan is to grow it and build a tree on the nice dead wood in the base if that has any potential?

You could probably replicate that with an interesting log and a sucker for next to nothing in cost and you would have much more control over the deadwood. Check out this thread:

Thread 'Tanuki recommendations' https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/tanuki-recommendations.41434/

Its a loose sucker going up though the cracked deadwood. Plan is to grow it and build a tree on the nice dead wood in the base if that has any potential?