AusBonsai

Here is a picture of my crabappl.e unfortunately i was overseas when it flowered so i missed it purple blossoms this year. i have a before and after shot of it. i have done a little work on the branches and removed the moss from the trunk which greatly increased the taper ( the pic doesnt show this very well though). i feel it is coming along nicely although it still has a ways to go. luckily i have been getting shoots exactly where i want them.

Nice astro
All you need now is to work on building ramification and it will be real nice

Looking much healthier with that gunk away from the base

am unsure what to do with it. i was thinking broom style but i hear this may cause reverse taper due to so many branches coming out of one spot. what to do....

No i dont think broom. Leave it for a while Astro and it will present itself. If you get rid of that back second leader and the heavy back branch it would change the tree. Flowering trees, i think, should be graceful.

do u mean just leave it with two forked branches or with one? i have considered leaving just one main branch and retraining the whoel thing. am too new to this to be brave enuff to dstroy it just yet lol