Couple nursery acer palmatum, go or no go?

[maroun.c]

First one has good low branches I believe and no taper issues.
2nd one main trunk has died off from the top and has been cut leaving deadwood to work on as well as good side branches , but not sure how to manage a leader and top growth.
Any advice ?

 

[Shibui]

I think the first one does have reverse taper. it looks thicker where the 3 branches are than lower and then not much thinner on either main trunk above the fork.
Depends what shape tree you want to grow. It could be OK after removing one of the main trunks but will never be instant bonsai. Probably 5 years in expert hands and maybe 10 years in beginner hands to get to a reasonable bonsai.

Don't waste time on the second one with dead trunk unless that are giving it away. Even then it is probably only good to practice pruning or layering techniques. I can't see a good bonsai even in the long term with that one and the cause of the dead trunk may be benign (watering?) or may introduce something nasty into your garden.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

i am no expert, but this is what i would try if somebody gave this to me for free (i would not buy it)

cultivar is not ideal, but the rootstock is likely vigorous palmatum

I would (eventually) chop at the red line that i drew, removing the 2 main trunks at the ‘back’ so to speak (taking your photographed front as your potential front)

i would then thread graft an interesting cultivar onto the remaining branch (see blue line, as a very rough approximation) and develop a cascade from there, using the new cultivar as your leader (and finally removing the third and final branch that is currently on the tree)

this would put the major scar at the back

this would take the focus away from what is surely a less-than-ideal nebari. I tend to focus less on nebari of cascase than of upright trees, maybe that’s just my eye