AusBonsai

Hi Gareth , violence will get you no-where , except maybe a free bed for the night . done bun can't be undone .

Cheers Alpine

yes i agree, but i would not be happy, i hope it turns out ok for you mate.

Looking very nice Ian !!!

Hi anttal63 , its shooting and back budding on the trunk as Nigra's do so give it a few years and it will be well on its way to becoming a very nice 2 man tree . This too will go into a larger bonsai pot to speed things up a bit ,now the basic frame is set it needs some serious root run in order to get the shoot going on the upper trunk . The lower branches are well ramified so it the middle and apex which needs the growth . No need to fatten the 80-90mm trunk just build the foliage up .

This tree is only a youngster about 10-11 yo , still having the young bark on most of the trunk although it appears flaky its due to the massive amount of shoot all over the lower trunk when collected . I did a ring count on the tap root at the time of collection at around 8 so its got plenty of power in it for growth . Last years re-pot showed the excellent root mass development no doubt it w ill need another minor trim this year .

Cheers Alpine