Why Not Take Olive Me . . .

[ColinFraser]

Trolling a landscape nursery I found this Olive - overgrown and escaping its 15-gallon pot, just the way I like them!

I left most of it behind to fit it into the car (I always have a pair of loppers in the back just in case).

 

[ColinFraser]

Cracking open the nursery can, it looked like there were plenty of roots right near the base of the trunk - why not go for it?

If I'm going to kill it, it might as well be now, before I get attached!

 

[ColinFraser]

Back in its (now shallower) pot:

 

[ColinFraser]

I'm not sure what I'll do with it if it bounces back. It's over 3" wide at the base and just about 8" high as chopped. It seems like it might be able to pull off 'sumo-ish' proportions, or I could grow another couple of trunk segments . . . Looking at it now, I want to take some of those lowest stubs back to flush with the trunk, but I should probably just leave it alone for a bit

Which side do you guys like better, and what would you do with it?

 

[Redwood Ryan]

I kind of like this side, with the trunk outlined in blue and removing the branch with the red x.

 

[j evans]

Right off I'd say I like side one but I reserve the right to change my mind as time goes on. Good find!

Redwood posted just before me. I agree with him.

 

[sorce]

Olives my love,
Olives my love,
I'll give you Olives my loooove.

Kill the short one poking up at the toppish.

Sorce

 

[vaibatron]

I'm digging the second pic as a front... The knobby-ness is un-attractively attractive ( how about those words lol). I think the movement is better as well.

 

[ColinFraser]

I have an opportunity to buy a few more of these, and I think I'm going to take it. My yard may become an olive tree farm!

 

[Txhorticulture]

Do they fruit well where you live? They need certain conditions. Lots of fruit trees need winter chill but olives need something called vernalization. I don't remember exactly how it works, has to do with the relationship of day and night temperatures. So there aren't many places in texas where the produce fruit reliably every year.

I like the bark in old ones but it takes a long time.

 

[sorce]

Did they call and ask why you don't just take olive them?

Sorce

 

[ColinFraser]

Do they fruit well where you live? They need certain conditions. Lots of fruit trees need winter chill but olives need something called vernalization. I don't remember exactly how it works, has to do with the relationship of day and night temperatures.

Haha, I live in one of the most ideal climates for olives on earth outside their natural range! I remember a botany class where a professor pointed out that the city of Santa Barbara, CA had to spray 'Olive Stop' (a plant hormone) on all the trees on Olive St. every year to keep the entire neighborhood from becoming a black mess! So, in short, yes, fruiting olives will fruit here.

However, most varieties sold for landscaping are "fruitless" (really should be "lessfruit"), and that's just fine with me . . .

 

[ColinFraser]

Did they call and ask why you don't just take olive them?
Sorce

I was in a station wagon the first time, and already had 4 other trees in the car . My title was an allusion to the fact that I wanted to buy them all . . .
Today, I have a truck and trailer!

 

[sorce]

Today, I have a truck and trailer!

Tomorrow, a shrink appointment!

You went from 0 to fuckin crazy real fast!

Love it!

Sorce

 

[Brian Underwood]

Olives are nearly indestructible, so just go for it and do all the cutting you want right now. Personally, I flat cut them at the widest point on the base then regrow roots from there. Here's my original inspiration; http://web.archive.org/web/20041208121004/http://www.dugzbonsai.com/olivehead1.htm

 

[Brian Underwood]

Though if you can wait on the other trees till spring, that would be the ideal time to torture them...

 

[ColinFraser]

Thanks @Brian Underwood
I'm going to work at least one more hard now - maybe the others will have their sentences deferred until spring . . . or maybe not

 

[Geo]

Great link!! Thank you.

 

[ColinFraser]

Didn't fill the whole trailer, but definitely picked up a few more. Watson The Bonsai Dog came along to help.

 

[ColinFraser]

Hahah, check out the escaped root on this thing!


If I turned that over and said the root was a trunk and the trunks were roots, it would seem believable