A couple of Olives
Posted: January 31st, 2021, 7:40 pm
I collected these a long time ago, the first tree at Brownhill creek in the Adelaide hills on my first ever dig. A few weeks ago I noticed the leaves were looking really yellow and when I had a closer look the underside of every leaf was covered in scale! A dose of eco oil, a confidor tablet in the soil and an old toothbrush solved the problem but the first right hand branch had a bit of dieback. Actually a lot of dieback so I'm letting a base shoot grow out and I might create a small branch there to balance it out. I'll see how it recovers but in the meantime I should find a better pot. I remember thinking 2 years ago it needed a shallow pot and I'm guessing that blue glazed one was the only one I had!
The second tree was collected about 15 years ago. The main branches were set in place early and have filled out nicely, but the last 5 years have been mostly spent trying to fill in the annoying gap beneath the right hand side of the apex. I tried approach grafting a branch where I wanted it on the main trunk and that was unsuccessful, but luckily 2 years ago a shoot appeared where I had tried the graft. I'm guessing the damaged bark encouraged a shoot to appear, but whatever the reason I now have something to work with and I can finally close that gap! Another improvement I'm thinking of is reducing the knobbly bit on the far right of the trunk.
Both of these trees were styled back when I created olives in classic japanese shapes, which I no longer do. That's a discussion for another thread but I still love these trees and I plan to keep them to my original plan.
Matt.
The second tree was collected about 15 years ago. The main branches were set in place early and have filled out nicely, but the last 5 years have been mostly spent trying to fill in the annoying gap beneath the right hand side of the apex. I tried approach grafting a branch where I wanted it on the main trunk and that was unsuccessful, but luckily 2 years ago a shoot appeared where I had tried the graft. I'm guessing the damaged bark encouraged a shoot to appear, but whatever the reason I now have something to work with and I can finally close that gap! Another improvement I'm thinking of is reducing the knobbly bit on the far right of the trunk.
Both of these trees were styled back when I created olives in classic japanese shapes, which I no longer do. That's a discussion for another thread but I still love these trees and I plan to keep them to my original plan.
Matt.
