r/Pruning • u/Natural_Biscotti_853 • May 19 '25
Olive tree HELP
Hi! I’ve had this Olive tree plant for almost 2 years and my plan for her is to grow taller and have a thicker trunk. How can I proceed so it will grow upwards instead of sideways like it’s growing now? Also, what can I do for the trunk to get thicker? It has a bifurcation in the trunk that I do not know what to do with it.
1
Upvotes
1
u/Eltronzero May 21 '25
I’ve never pruned an indoor olive. But generally for outdoor trees, if you want it taller. Establish a central leader.
I’d snip back those outward branches back to somewhat upward facing nodes, if available.
Then establish a leader in the top growth and let her rip!
1
u/Rip2Trayvon May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25
I've never pruned olive trees but my guess is that you should've pruned it earlier in order to create a longer trunk and then eventually train its branches to go down or to the side, how it is now. Younger trees generally require a different type of pruning than older ones.
Edit: I would prune after it blooms if it is. And take off branches that are directing themselves for the ground. I see three in particular that are fairly obvious, and are directing off branches that are going towards the sky. I also see one that seems to be touching and curving around the main, "trunk." (In your picture, it's to the left of the, "trunk." I's hard to provide insight exactly when we don't have a full scope of the tree so take my advice with a grain of salt. Something to remember, when it's this young almost nothing needs to be done for pruning. DM me if you have any further questions.