Dear Dino,

with the term hunting I believe that you mean a basal sucker, that is a straight and vigorous branch that develops from the roots, near the stem, and which must be removed to prevent it from intercepting a part of the mineral salts absorbed by the roots and which should be directed to the mother plant; or it is a sucker, or one of those straight and vigorous branches, which steal nourishment from the piata, as well as making the foliage unsightly; in both cases, these branches must be removed from your olive tree, and you can take advantage of this fact by thinking of using them to create bonsai. You can think of layering them, that is to make them root when they are still attached to the mother plant; the layering is prepared by cutting the bark at the base of the branch, in the point where you want to cut it, then the living wood is dusted with rooting hormone and moist soil is placed on the incision; the soil should be covered with a paper bag or with several layers of film, so that it remains well attached to the branch. When you see roots develop in the plastic, the layering can be detached from the mother plant and moved to pots. Or you can use the already cut branches as cuttings; only the thin and semi-woody apexes are used as cuttings, as they tend to root more easily; also in this case the use of rooting hormone to be advised; the olive tree cuttings are done in late spring or late summer. When from your cuttings, or from your layering, you have obtained a small healthy and luxuriant plant, you can evaluate the possibility of growing it as a bonsai; we proceed for some years keeping the pre-bonsai in a common terracotta bowl, with rich, fertile and very well drained soil; the formation of the crown of the future bonsai can begin already when the plant is small; but first of all you will have to know from the start what the final shape of your bonsai will be, in order to be able to determine the steps to be taken in order to obtain the bonsai you want. Consider that the shape of a bonsai is initially determined by the normal course of the pre-bonsai, which is modified according to your tastes, so before you start cutting branches or bending others, look at some photos of bonsai, in so you know where you want to go with your new plant. In any case, consider that the first steps to prepare a pre-bonsai are light pruning interventions, it is more important to make sure that your plant is in full health and develops a healthy and robust root system.