Olive - to chop or not to chop

[Jhalkhoree]

Two years ago my neighbour was getting rid of 2 olive trees because they apparently we're not producing olive after 5 years in the ground. Needless to say, I was there to rescue them because they ended up in the chipper. I have growing them in a large pot since and they have responded well after the severe root pruning and trunk chop.
One has developed branches in the right places and will soon be receive initial training and possibly some carving.

However the other one is being a pain in the back side and has not develop branches to where I want them.

I am very incline to truck chop below the first branch and start again.

I just want to get some expert advice before I proceed. I am hoping there might be something else that could be done.

Thanks heaps

Jay

[shibui]

Maybe a broom style is achievable with what you have but I cannot see it being great in the near future. If there is no real potential in the current incarnation them a chop will probably not make it worse. Do you think a change of planting angle might improve the feel of the trunk coming out of the ground and possibly give a better tree?

[CraigM]

Was thinking the same around angling trunk. Angle to the left, and lower left branch to becomes first branch. The branch on the right held down with the wire could be taken up as the main branch and leave to grow, needs to thicken a lot. The lower back right could be used for back or right. Cannot really see detailed roots, would roots on the right support angle to the left?

The dead section in the middle will need to be carved.

If you do decide to chop the trunk, what style are you after? Perhaps cut an unequal 'V' so that one side is higher than the other, hopefully tree buds on both sides, and have branches develop at different levels. You can then work on carving / hollowing out the trunk... just a thought.

[Andrew Legg]

Jay,

For me, so much of this tree's best solution is in the roots! That's the bit we can't see too. Assuming the roots to be a bit uninteresting as they so often are with olives, I'd actually air layer it diagonally about 5cms below the branching point. I'd layer diagonally to get a better angle of exit for the trunk, and then once the layer takes, I'd cut the bottom section down to the same 5 cms.

Two trees frome one. That trunk there is just too featureless for my liking, and unless you are keen to learn carving, I'd go for the solution offered with two trees. Your final target would be something like the small olive in my post:

viewtopic.php?f=129&t=7569&hilit=Grey+o ... e&start=30

Cheers,

Andrew