Hi everyone im planning on collecting a wild olive in the spring wich is in august here in South africa.
I would like to know how wide should i dig around the trunk?
Should i trunk shop it?
Should i snip of al the new shoots once i chopped it?
Is there some tips on aiding in the survival of it?
BTW its my first yamadori ill be collecting.
I would realy apreiate some tips
The trunk is about 10cm in diameter and is growing in rocky terain.
What if there arnt allot of feeder roots?
Thanx

If this is your first yamadori, see if you can find a bonsai friend to help you. Always good to have someone with experience on hand. Also, make sure you have permission from the landowner. Bad juju if you go trespassing.
With field-grown deciduous trees, I generally dig a hole 5-6x bigger than the base of the tree is wide. For example: If the tree base is 5cm, then my hole will be ~25cm. Since yours will be 10cm, I'd go ~50-60 cm. If it's in rocky terrain, the roots could be all over the place, so I'd gather as many as I can, and work on getting the roots closer to the base over several years. You may find that the root base looks awful, especially if it's grown around rocks. Get it healthy over a few years and then do an air layer as needed.
Deciduous are more forgiving when it comes to root pruning & trunk chopping. They often send out adventitious buds & roots at cut areas. Use coarse soil. Keep it damp, not wet (or dry). Rooting hormone helps. If collected & cared for properly, it should put out new shoots within a month or two. Let the new shoots grow wild - no pruning that first season.
If it were a juniper or pine, I wouldn't recommend as a first yamadori.
Best of luck

Olives are like weeds in your part of the world. I have seen people taking a chainsaw (!) and cutting the rootball of a tree 40cm diamater flat, leaving only minima rim of roots. So I would say: They take a lot. Probably if you keep 10-20cm of soil arount the root, you would be fine.

Do note however, olives tend to grow very wide belowground, before roots start.

And yes. take a friend who knows how.