• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Pruning shohin olive

July 1, 2022 by Jonas Dupuich

Summer is a good time to prune olive bonsai. By pruning when the weather is warm, I can expect olives to produce new growth until the weather cools in fall.

For two small shohin, cutback consisted of reducing long shoots and pruning to silhouette. Here’s what this looked like.

Shohin olive

Shohin olive – before pruning

Shohin olive bonsai

After pruning – 6.5″

I did minimal work as I want to keep the tree full this year until I can repot it. I may reduce some of the main branches to improve the structure of the tree down the road, but for now I’m working with the existing branches.

Since the tree is growing in a round pot, I turned it to see if there are other options for the front.

The back of the tree also looks good, but it doesn’t offer as good a view of the trunk.

Back side

Back side

A much younger olive got a similar treatment. I pruned long shoots in hopes of stimulating new buds that will make it easier to keep the silhouette small.

Olive

Olive – before pruning

After pruning

After pruning – 5.5″

This tree offers a very different view from the back side.

Back

Back side

I’ve considered using this side as the front, but the tree looks more like a stump of wood with a young tree growing behind it from this side. For now I’ll stick with the original front.

For a discussion about getting started with shohin, check out the recent episode of the Bonsai Wire Podcast in which Andrew Robson and I share our growing fascination with small trees.

✕

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Olive, Shohin

Previous Post: « Summer pruning young deciduous trees
Next Post: Bonsai Development Series #27: Focusing growth on the lowest primary branches »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gary McCarthy says

    July 2, 2022 at 3:56 am

    That’s a KILLER pot on the first olive!!!

  2. scott chadd says

    July 2, 2022 at 7:46 am

    smaller bonsai are fun to work with. they offer a scale that makes for fast results from pruning. in addition, their size makes them easy to handle which is a great benefit for us older bonsai people.

  3. John Schmied says

    July 2, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    These are awesome Jonas. Thanks for the post.
    btw: Can you please tell us the media are you using for these Olives?
    Cheers!

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      July 2, 2022 at 7:47 pm

      Thanks! I’ll likely use a shohin mix of about 50-60% akadama with the rest pumice.

  4. Richard Dorfman says

    July 2, 2022 at 7:47 pm

    I share similar sentiments to those of Scott. The only trees I’ve added to my collection in the last few years have been shohin and mame. Pure joy working in miniature and easier to manage while transitioning from Fall to Winter and Winter to Spring. Have also grown several mame starting from seedling over the last 6 years.

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2023 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT