I have a lovely Arbequina Olive Tree in my front yard. It's very small - I have had it almost a year and it's never been pruned.

It's pretty lopsided. Most all of the branches go to one side. The leaves are at the very end of the branches.

I'm wondering what I can do to train it or prune it to make it a little more balanced.

I feel like if I pruned them back I would cut off all the leaves. I might be young and supple enough that I could bend them over to point them to the other side??

See photo - It's kind of hard to photograph what I'm talking about so I added a goofy stick drawing version :)

I have no fear of pruning Olives! They want to grow! Is it lopsided because one side is shadier? Plants tend to lean towards the sun, but you knew that!

We have two olives, but almost every ranch here does, so pollination is not an issue. Ours were started from cuttings I grabbed from trees fruiting at a golf course we played. I know the size of these babies, but no idea what kind they are. All I know is that they are huge, and really tasty brined with garlic/lemon/herbs.

We recently dug up our two baby trees and moved them to our new property. On drip systems, and they show no shock! They are shallow rooted, so pretty easy to move. Because we cut the roots, we also pruned the tops seriously back. They were about 6' tall, and now they are 4', but they will grow.

Rather than doing a "comb over," I'd try getting that shorter side to wake up and grow. Just my opinion!

Suzi

Anyone know of any good website/tutorials on pinching, pruning and training?

I'm very much a beginner!

This one came lopsided - I just never noticed it so much until I got it home and in the ground. The spot it's in now gets good sun though isn't as protected from the wind as it should be.