Bonsai Abe's big grafts

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Not sure if any of you will be familiar with Bonsai Abe, but they are a couple of generations (three?) that primarily work on Azuma JWP in Fukushima prefecture.

Most of their trees are grown from seed and have a very aged and almost prehistoric look. I've caught a few of their styling videos which are also quite impressive, but this one was downright shocking.

Wondering if anyone has seen approach (?) grafts this size executed before?

Pretty cool stuff.

Enjoy.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Bonsai Abe related to Master Kenichi Abe by any chance?

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Upon further research, yes.

He is the second generation, pictured with his son, Daiki, in the second picture here. The grandfather, Kurayoshi Abe was the first generation of the family business.

And yeah, they don't collect trees from the Azuma mountains, but seeds. Everything is grown from seed.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Did some small research to find Abe trees several months ago after Ryan Neil mentioned in live stream that they had less formal/restrictive more natural styling of trees than farther south Japan does. This is very positive praise to me. Also very good to learn that not all in Japan do overly formalized development of trees.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I for one don't believe this is going to be successful that often, or if at all. Pictured is just the first step. Nicely done, and nice theory, but the grafts are big and going to be hard to support for long enough to take. How long might that be? The grafts are going to have a blunt end with only 50% cambium-to-cambium contact of the original pathway that the scion had on its own roots. That's big time problematic because the whole scion will be starved and once it starts downhill, it's irreversible. Who thinks this is going to work?