AusBonsai

Hi Guys
I thought Id just post a few picks of today's Olive find. Any feed back welcome. If some one could tell me how much to take off to flatten the bottom, that would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Damo

Oath!!! Nice haul. Give em a year to recover and your good to go.

Thanks Andrew
Can some one tell me should I remove all the foliage when I put them into a grow box or leave it on?

I want one!

No idea myself, but found a page on the wiki for you: https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index.php?title=Olive

Digging Yamadori Olives

1, Chop the trunk to a reasonable height with a pruning saw or chainsaw. Usually 30-50cm is ideal
2, Dig a trench around the tree not a lot bigger then the base and chop off any roots as you go with your spade. Olive roots are brittle and can usually be chopped with a spade or hatchet.
3, Widen the trench so that you can get your spade under the tree and chop at the taproot. When the taproot is chopped about half way, you can push the tree with your foot and the taproot will likely snap.
4, Pull the tree out of the hole and backfill the hole.
5, Lie the tree on its side and saw the taproot off. If the tree is a large one you can take it home and use a saw to cut the tree flat just under where it bulges. Don't worry if it doesn't have any roots, it will grow more.
6, When you get it home, place it in a tub or bucket of water containing some seaweed solution for one or two days then plant out into a large pot or the ground. Make sure you keep it quite wet but not waterlogged. After a couple of months it will start putting out new shoots.
7, Leave it in place for a year, regularly pinching the new growth, before styling and potting into a bonsai pot.


Tip: Make sure you cut off all leaves from yamadori olives before you plant them as they will resist pushing out new shoots if they still have leaves on them, in some cases they might die.

Great stuff Jason
Thanks mate

No worries Also worth looks at posts by the user "Olivecrazy", as there are a LOT of helpful hints within his many olive threads

search.php?author_id=3945&sr=posts

Ha ha
I am familiar with OC and was hoping he seen this thread. I'm about to look through his posts for some handy tips.
I really want these to survive the leaf size on the smaller two is about 5mm. My guess is either they have been constantly trimmed back by the council (I got them from the side of a walking track) or wallabys /kangaroos maybe. Either way very small leaf size.

Wish I had olives like that growing wild like near me. Nice collection. About the only thing I know about olives is you can cut everything off the bottom and they grow back fast. Keep us posted how they go.

Josh

Will do Josh.
Im lucky enough to have a national reserve about 5 mins from my house around the Blue Lake (look it up its a beautiful spot) and Olives are a pest so I have been given free range to pull out as many as I like. If your ever down this way let me know and I would be more than happy to take you on a dig.

Damian79 wrote:Will do Josh.
Im lucky enough to have a national reserve about 5 mins from my house around the Blue Lake (look it up its a beautiful spot) and Olives are a pest so I have been given free range to pull out as many as I like. If your ever down this way let me know and I would be more than happy to take you on a dig.

Sounds good Damien.

Josh.

Great dig Damian Unfortunately they dont do well here with frosts and cold weather. Its a shame as i would like to develop one.

Thanks Bodhi
I'll be keeping a very close eye on these over the next 12 months. We have frosts here during winter but not to the extent you do
I'll bring one up for you next time I'm in Ballarat.

Hi Guys
here are some pics. Clipped, flattened and ready for pots. Any thoughts or comments welcome
cheers

This olive was collected on the 20th October 2013. As of today, it has one tiny shoot at almost ground level . I have been told not to worry by some people, but I met a guy over the weekend who has collected them from the same paddock as this one was taken and he said he had shoots in 6 weeks .

This one was dug up on the 19 September 2013 and hasn't done anything since .

I wont get rid of them until I have collected some more. I have access to hundreds of these, what is the best time of year to dig them up?