Kinda stumped (pun begrudgingly intended) on this one. This was field grown originally at an angle (see red soil line 2nd pic) by a buddy, but when we dug it ~5 years ago the "aerial" roots really seemed like the thing to highlight by putting it in a more upright form. Unfortunately in 2023, the second branch on the right died off, messing the intended design. You can see it as the dead stub now. I pretty much let it free grow the last 2-3 years hoping for new shoots in that area, and just did a light profile pruning before taking this pic. Looking for feedback or wild ideas on what to do with this piece of material as I suspect it needs a full re-thinking.
by boonefrog
2 Comments
I do have some cuttings I rooted from this 3 years ago, but am unsure if you can thread or approach graft the species.
Here is my n00b opinion:
– if not grafting then new front maybe closer to photo 7 (if not rotated a little more counter clockwise for a bit more of the wide base but so you still have the opportunity to swing some low back branches around to the right side for more depth)
– wire the pliable upper branches down, eventually replacing & eliminating the tall straight thick unbendable branches up there
– I’d consider keeping interesting movement branches higher up for now even if they’re possibly going to be shortened or eliminated in the coming years to help maximize future styling options
– approach grafting could be a good strat if you did want to fill in the bare trunk sections more and if you did that, I’d try to make sure there’s a common theme in how the branches emanate from the trunk so there’s consistency in the design (for example if all the existing branches before grafting come up and spread from there in random directions, then it doesn’t make as much sense to orient the approach graft such that they start straight down, ideally they’d follow suit with the existing keep regions of the design)
This is fantastic material though. You’ve been doing great work, love to see it!