I think you are out of the woods on this Ito Shimpaku. I bought two imported Ito from Brussels around 10 years ago. They were in much better shape when I received them.
If it were my tree, I'd choose the first front. There is no reverse taper, visually. You have measure the distance at the...
This one is Akadama and lava, 2:1.
This spring, I replaced the top inch or so of crusty soil with akadama and a little pumice and river sand.
Thanks,
I use 1/3 lava, 1/3 pumice and 1/3 akadama, pretty close. Basically Boon's soil mix.
Do you have a concave Knob cutter? I would use it clean out the first chop...it will heal much flatter and I would take more off of that cut so it's more of a gradual taper to the top branch that's healing that cut.