Hey there everyone.

I have a wild olive that has to start its training soon but I have no idea as to where to start. Any tips would be usefull. Ill try and post some pics.

I tried to upload 2 pics but it didint work. Here is a pic from the front? Don't know yet which is front and back

Hey hein. that trees looking good! What i would do is prune branches that you clearly wont be using so that you can see what you are working with to start. I realy dont know what to do on that tree its quite a challenging one.. I think you should select some branches you want and then wire them into interesting shapes

Hey Johnco.

Thanx for the reply. The only problem with choosing the branches I want to work with is that some sprout 3 branches out of one bud. I guess the best would be to let it grow for a while. What do you think? Also, the one side has more branches than the other side. So choosing a front is a bit tricky

I still don't have a style in mind so if you maybe have some ideas.....pass it along

Ok well what i think would work pretty well is to grow an informal upright style. The top branch on the right hand side of the tree (looking at your most recent pic) can be wired slightly upright to almost start a new apex for the tree. Then you can choose another two branches that will be main branches that your little branchlets will grow off of wiring those main branches will add some movement to them and will look visually appealing too,just watch out for wire bite.

You can then eventually grow canopies of foliage once you get your ramification right. It will take a while tho too so imagine that when the tree grows for a longer time period bark will start to grow on the branches and you will have three nice branches with canopies on them. You could choose to have more or less branches its up to you. But now that it is pretty much growing season i would suggest cutting off the new shoots that you wont need. Its just going to use the tree's energy that you could use towards your proper branches. Hope that helped bru

P.s i wish i could download your photo so that i can illustrate what i mean by using microsoft paint

Joncoh, you can click on the picture so that you're looking at it full-scale, then click the PrtSc button at the top right of your keyboard. Then you go to Microsoft Paint and click Paste. This will place an exact copy of what your screen looked like when you took the screenshot in Microsoft Paint. Crop what you don't want, and edit as you will. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in mind!

[quote="hein" post=11 Hey joncoh.

Thanx for the reply. The only problem with choosing the branches I want to work with is that some sprout 3 branches out of one bud. I guess the best would be to let it grow for a while. What do you think? Also, the one side has more branches than the other side. So choosing a front is a bit tricky

I still don't have a style in mind so if you maybe have some ideas.....pass it along [/quote]

Hi Hein,

I recently found out while attending a meeting with my Bonsai Club, that the front of the tree is where one can see the line (or form) of the trunk from base to apex with little or no interruption from the foliage or branches. Then the rest of the branches grow out from the trunk at the sides (or slightly forward sides) and circle around the back of the tree to the other side making sure that no two branches sit at the same level on the trunk...in other words each branch sits at an alternate level to the others.

I think it needs to grow a little more before you begin doing any major pruning and wiring except perhaps choosing a leader, as joncoh mentioned, and wiring it to start a new apex. I also think the informal upright or the windswept styles would work well with this.

Lots of healthy growth happening here. I look forward to following it's progession.

Leslie

Hey guys.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I kinda know where my front is now, but as we all know bonsai is ever changing. So for now I have my front but it will probably change in the future.

Joncho, I never thought of growing a new leader, so thanx for that tip. I will definately let the tree grow for a couple of months before any pruning and wiring.I will won't be doing major wiring. Only little bit to get a rough idea of what I want.
While the tree is growing freely for a while, what can I do to keep the inter nodes short? Or will that only be addressed when pruning nd wiring comes round?

In my minds eye, I have an idea of the final tree but ill have to wait and see. Do you think that I can jin the top to give it a lightning strike effect with the other jin at the bottom? I am still deciding to whether I should leave that potential jin there or cut it off.

Perfect, i think the lightning affect at the top aswell as the peice sticking out would look good. Make the top of the tree all ripped and half chopped off then paint it with lime sulfur OR wipe some wood glue on it to preserve the wood from rotting (learnt that this weekend) and do the same to the branch at the bottom. As for the inter nodal distances, what shortens those is pruning.

I think that at this point I will focus on the branch placement first and then when al is done I will start with the pruning. The wood glue idea does work very good. Just check that its the one that is water proof or something like that. I glued my other olive tree last season to start working on it this spring. Works like a bomb.