The First Work on My Olive Tree, The Bonsai Zone, Nov 2023

My Olive (Olea europaea) tree was a gift from Scott Winnard of Lets Do Bonsai! Today I'm doing the first work on the tree, pruning both the roots and the top of the tree.
Check out Scott's KZbin channel here....
/ @letsdobonsai
#TheBonsaiZone

[@nathantyler5675]

Out of season repotting and pruning...Making the rules, breaking the rules...You rebel...Great video and information...Thanks for sharing Nigel...

[@yospectre3970]

Hi from spain....the olive is very strong ...you can chop all you need......but not overwater the plant. Its like a ficus....you can leave 2 leaves and the olive will grow a new branch(sorry for my poor english)

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Thanks so much, good advice!!!!

[@murray821]

From the Netherlands, if you defoliate in spring, al dormant buds will pop, otherwise it will only extend or grow from the 2 buds after the pruning point. But don’t do this every year, only when its strong. Ive got this tip from “Growing Bonsai by Jelle” here on KZbin, I tried it this year when I placed my olive trees outside and completely defoliated them. And they started growing fresh new leaves all over the tree. Got lots more ramification than previous years

[@54114142]

"as little root pruning as possible" 😂

[@hyperionhelios190]

One day I hope to also have an olive. If only I could dig some up like Aussie Bonsai Bloke.

[@OwenSpitfireStorvik]

Picked up a lovely little Olive tree at my local nursery today!! Very excited, for both, the tree, and future Olive videos from the 🇨🇦 Bonsai master!! Thanks Nigel for the great video!!

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Awesome!!!

[@japanesemaplesbonsai7133]

Lovely little olive tree Nigel. All the best from the uk 🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Thank you so much!!

[@stealthheero616]

Man the olive tree looks great! It wasn't in this video, but it I think it might be interesting to try and root the large cutting you took off as a raft style cutting. Certainly would take up some space in the plant room having to be planted horizontally...that or of course just cut off the branches of that main thick cutting to all plant close together in one smaller pot.

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Great suggestion!

[@germanrodriguez6201]

As a fellow spaniard bonsai enthusiast I'm happy to see you having an olive tree. Here comes a couple advices, or what we usually do with olive tree bonsais. They like plain soils, not too acidic, so knowing your soil.mix, probably you should go shorter on the pine bark. Here we repot it closer to summer( around may). And another one which dosen't afect you 😂, olive trees hate wiring. I'm eager to see the progress on this one! Thanks for the video and take care!

[@germanrodriguez6201]

Anotther thing i forgot! After reppoting it let some suckers grow a little, they help with the stablishing of new roots

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Thanks so much, great advice!!!

[@paulbyland]

Hurray! I've been hoping you would get an olive for AGES. 3 of my 4 bonsai trees are olives.

[@paulbyland]

You should consider keeping it in the greenhouse over the winter. You usually keep your greenhouse just a bit above freezing right? As long as it doesn't get a really hard freeze, it would probably like it a lot more than the basement. Olive trees like having a LOT of light.

[@brucedeacon28]

👍👌👌

[@RADsLife]

The rocks at the end are quite fitting to the planting, almost like it's growing from in between them

[@Ukeitupmike]

I have my mediterranean and all that can handle temperatures below 0 Celsius but not deep frost in a cold greenhouse. (Oranges, Lemons, Olives, Satsuki Azaleas and the chinese elms). Mine is heated to not drop below -2 which seems ok since years.

[@suneetsingh7745]

Hey Nigel ... Love from India... Can u get a green Island ficus, the one with coin shaped round leaves and demonstrate on that ?

[@tundraicesams]

What's neat little tree!

[@baldyeti]

Great job setting her up, good sir! Was really diggin the chop you took.

[@Denkar11]

An olive is on my wish list, too! Sadly, my space is a lot more limited than yours (apartment) so for now I have to be happy with the ones I have.

[@arnaudinputselector]

olive trees can support a bit of frost ;-) my parents have one since years on their balcony in nantes france and it stays outside all year long and we sometime have around -5 -7°C in the winter

[@t3dwards13]

You've shown more restraint than I thought you would. Hahaha

[@mattbrennan647]

Those tropicals in the colorful plastic pots come from Wigerts Ft Myers Florida. Trees, pots, etc available on their website. Good luck

[@andyhansen3117]

foist1

[@lukasmihara]

Definitely a cool species for Bonsai. I don't have one yet, but I'd surely like to have one myself. I hope everything went well and it's growing healthily even with the off-season repotting. In the reference photos, some of the older specimens even looked a bit like Baobap with those fat trunks. I wonder what your olive will turn into!

[@NoDecaf7]

Im really attracted to the gnarly twisted trunks of those old olives. I hope to be able to grow my own when I'm more experienced with keeping trees.

[@Steves_Backyard_Bonsai]

Love it. Now you actually have a beautiful Olive to develop. I’ll be watching its progress.

[@jballenger9240]

Happy for you. Very nice!🪴🫒🪴

[@bobcatbonsai]

I cannot wait for our first snow. Right now we are bouncing between 30s and 70s. That is a really nice Ollie Scott gifted you. I look forward to seeing what you create in the future!

[@johnrice1943]

I've got 4 olive trees here in Texas. Just the video i needed. Thanks

[@Emre-syoutubehandle]

Big cut made a big difference. Looking forward to see future updates on the olive tree!

[@francescamocerithibert2937]

I love olives 🫒 tree i have 2 bonsai and one tree one of my bonsai tree is over 30 years old its lovely my native land is Sicily the olives tree over there are old and majestically beautiful ❤

[@eve66able]

Olives don‘t lose their leaves over winter. Here in the Mediterranean climate there is no real winter, hovering just around the freezing point for a short time. Remember, olives are no tropicals.

[@3sechsund80er]

The first picture of the old Olive trees was taken on the island of Egina, off the coast of Athens. Its an ancient olive tree grove and its a rare find. Almost no tourists and really stunningly beautifuly trees that are THOUSANDS of years old.

[@tinjoesstation]

Looking good!!

[@growclipbonsaiforseniors1951]

Nice Olive from Scott. A trunk and a half with a cool root system. Definitely take the cuttings and try to root them, especially the one with the big cut. Nice and thick. Top and bottom pruning will get this olive off to a great start.

[@FrostBiteBonsai]

I love your olive! I got 2 of them, and yes... They are little twigs! Took them a long time after root prune to really come back. Great video Nigel!

[@spacerider6168]

Always wanted you to have an Olive and Ginkgo Tree . You got the olive and now i wish you get the Ginkgo tree too . The last one which you lost to insect borers was an amzing tree . When are you getting a Ginkgo tree ??

[@rebeccahunter725]

There is something about an olive bonsai that is very desirable! I think I might head out (very hot outside, so find some shade) and look at my own twiggy little olives. Still need to get up to the Murray to collect a bigger one, but one day . . . Collected trees have the roots flat cut with a chainsaw, so I expect your restrained root work will give the tree little trouble!

[@TheBonsaiCreator]

I'm very happy to see the best pruning of olive tree. Now it looks small and beautiful bonsai. Thanks for sharing valuable ideas. I'm a bonsai learner from Sikkim, India

[@mattbrennan647]

That big branch could make an awesome raft.

[@donnadornbusch6738]

Nigel, you are most informative

[@jazzrat2000]

Those oldest trees butts look so similar to mine and I'm only 69 Nigel. I have one olive tree and I'm looking to you to help me make it look good :-)

[@XaviersBonsaiRetreat]

Nice work. I am just doing my olives today before bringing them into the coldframe. This looks like another great development project :)

[@dabblingwithbonsai]

So nice to have friends, who add up to your collection 🧡 I'm about to move my olive indoors from the balcony, where it has been chilling (and maybe got a light frost), so the timing of this video is spot on 😊. There are some branches I'd like to cut off and seeing your Nigel-treatment I feel confident about removing them. Maube even cutting the branches back so there'll be no foliage (I might have read somewhere you can do it and the backbud easily ?) Thank you for the excellent video once again 💚💚💚 And thanks for the Spanish viewers with the advise they gave you!🧡

[@kathyvettraino2267]

I have a 45 year old russian olive in my yard. It's very hardy. Resprouts from pruning or old wood. I'll send you cuttings!😊

[@lorenzoveronese6608]

Hey Nigel, I live in north Italy and I have lot's of olive bonsai trees. Your one seems selvatic (it has small leaves), so it is very resistant. Where I live, temperature has recently went down to 4°C at night and in the coolest period it will go under 0°. An olive like that has just to be protected from ice (so when temperature

[@stevetippin]

wait, so you're not doing major root work on that olive? lol, that was way more than I was expecting!!! Please give us an update when you can to see the progress in the spring. I am not sure what to do with my olive this winter. I don't have a great place to store it in the temps that it prefers.

[@jazzrat2000]

it would be cool if the roots grew over the rocks

[@martygleason1573]

I have read that small olive trees have difficulty growing new shoots, so I will be interested to see how this develops.

[@robincrawford6056]

I'm curious about what temperature is needed to start the olive cuttings, because I keep my tender plants in an unheated garage over the winter where the temperature rarely goes below 45 F and would like to do some cuttings if it's possible.

[@richardhanson8148]

Are there some root knot nematodes in those root's? Just looks like swollen area's? 👍💪🤝🇺🇲

[@jazzrat2000]

I am wondering if you could jin that big side branch if it doesn't grow?

[@jazzrat2000]

how long do you wait until you put fertilizer in?

[@markkenyon4855]

thats a lot of root pruning after say you weren't going to do much.

[@michaelcowart6100]

Risky work for this time of year. That would have made an interesting raft style.

[@kbac8800]

Nigel, please turn off auto focus mode. Camera all time try catch in focus your arm, not the plant.

[@afinocchiaro]

Hi Nigel, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your skills about bonsai here! I really appreciate your channel and in the last two-three years I rarely missed one episode. I personally took the third of the olive tree photos few years ago in Sicily and it was such a nice surprise to see mentioned it here! The olive tree in my photo is the famous “ Olive tree of the Temple of Juno” inside the “Valley of the Temples” and it's about 500 years old. I can't wait to see how your bonsai olive tree will develop in the coming years!

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Wow, that's awesome and thanks for letting me use the photo, I really appreciate that!!!!