This is the notching Neli and Adair were talking about...photos lifted from Jonas' blog:
Wow, so much great info in this thread, especially as I am looking into starting a growing bed of numerous species.
But let me get one thing straight, this notching method and the pictures you showed to demonstrate it... This is to simply heal the scar of the removal of a sacrifice branch (or trunk you're chopping down to develop taper) but at the same time you can keep the sacrifice branch on? Contributing to fattening the trunk still but with the scar healing more efficiently?
Sorry if I missed something, just read 6 pages lol. My brain is a little overloaded. Thanks!
-Mike