How to make my olive trees straight again + general care

[talksr]

Hi there,
I have only owned my house and garden for a year, before that, I never had a garden, so I am new to a lot of this.

I purchased a year ago two small olive trees. I potted them and I am so pleased at how much they have grown in the past year.
My only worry is that one in particular is starting to go a little lop-sided.

Both came with a cane to keep them straight, but it doesn't seem to be doing the job.
Can anyone advise me on what to do?
Also, in general, the amount of bushiness the trees have is amazing. They have grown so well this summer.
Can anyone advise me if I should get some secateurs and trim them down a little? Will this encourage them to grow harder and quicker?
Thanks in advance.

This is what the other more straighter one looks like now...

And this is what they looked a year ago....

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[zigs]

Welcome to the forum

They do tend to go a bit lop sided, wouldn't hurt to cut it back hard to the main stem, but i'd wait until it's dormant in the autumn.

 

[talksr]

Ok thank you. I might see if I can get a new cane to try and get it a little straighter.

 

[Sean Regan]

You can straighten the trunks of some trees if they are quite young and still growing.
Try getting a really stiff length of broom handle and attach it to the trunk of the olive with insulating tape wrapped tightly in several places, where it doesn't touch the handle, then leave it a few months then wrap some more round it, but tighter. Over a year or so doing this several times, you might straighten the nearest one in the last photo, but I don't think you'll have much luck with the other.

 

[Silentrunning]

Look at pictures of old olive trees from Europe. You will see that many have twisted and gnarly trunks. This is one of the features that give them their charm.

 

[SeniorCitizen]

At least two things in life are difficult to change; 1) the direction a tree would like to grow and 2) my wife's mind.
Be certain they get full sun as much as possible if that's what Olive trees prefer.