Olive Styling Help

tnaz71

Yamadori
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I have had this guy for a long while now. It's been growing in a 15gallon nursery pot for about 10yrs. I recently decided enough was enough and put it in a training pot to do something with it. I had an idea what to do but now I am on the fence about if it is the right thing. Please forgive my MS paint skills it's pretty bad but you get the jist. I was thinking maybe to remove that lower branch on the left?

I need to carve the deadwood a bit, I just cleaned it up with a wire brush to remove all the rotted stuff.

Anyways suggestions would be great!
Thanks!
 

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jason biggs

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I would put it in full sun if i was you as those leaves are still too big.You have a nice trunk but i would try + grow more branches [in my most humble opinion][being in the company of so many bonsai giants...]
 
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I agree that you shoud remove the lower branch on the right, I would also shorten the one on the bottom left, and bend branches down on the left and top of the tree, to form something like this, also I would do some further carving on the tree...
great material though...
me personally, I would trade off the worrying about leaf size, (which I do agree the sun and a little less watering would greatly reduce size), and worry about branching / structure first, leaf size can be worked on, when your tree has a little more shape...
 
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tnaz71

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I agree that you shoud remove the lower branch on the right, I would also shorten the one on the bottom left, and bend branches down on the left and top of the tree, to form something like this, also I would do some further carving on the tree...
great material though...
me personally, I would trade off the worrying about leaf size, (which I do agree the sun and a little less watering would greatly reduce size), and worry about branching / structure first, leaf size can be worked on, when your tree has a little more shape...


Nice I love it! That is what I am going to shoot for now thank you!

Since I just repotted it this year I will probably try & get some branch structure going but pretty much just going to let it do it's thing this year to help it gain some strength then work on it a lot next year.

Thank you again for the great direction
 

rosieface

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I would put it in full sun if i was you as those leaves are still too big.You have a nice trunk but i would try + grow more branches [in my most humble opinion][being in the company of so many bonsai giants...]

As another newbie, I am intrigued to find out that one can ensmallen leaves! Is this done by keeping the tree dry? This is what I am inferring.

Also, "ensmallen" is a perfectly cromulent word.
 

jason biggs

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cannot find ensmallen or cromulent-what does it mean by the way-but to answer your question, direct sunlight tends to reduce leaf size very nicely,especially ficus + olea
 
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Biggest issue I have with this tree is that the apex is falling away to the back. I think you have some good advice here, but try to bring that apex forwards as well. I think this could be a lovely tree someday.
 

Bill S

Masterpiece
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Wood hardner, these go punky quickly.

Rosieface the old myth and possibly ways were to "starve" the tree, today we keep them healthy as possible and use methods like defoliation, and lots of sun.
 
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