Good for Hokidachi?

Mister Ed

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I've got this small tree growing along the ditch line that I'm thinking might work for a Hokidachi bonsai with a little coaxing. I was thinking about chopping all the branches back and air layering the trunk below the branches. I would think, within a couple off months, I would then be able to remove this and pot it where it can be allowed to grow more before starting to train it down the road. Below are a couple of pictures of the tree in question. Does this look like a Broom style candidate to anyone else besides me?


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edprocoat

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It looks like a broom already, complete with severe reverse taper at the whorl of branches. I doubt that a tree as thick as that is would be a good candidate for an air layer, even if it did eventually put out roots it would never be in a "couple of months".

ed
 

edprocoat

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How large is it? Hard to tell from the photos.

Judging by the phone junction box in the background it would have to be about 8 inches across and maybe 4 feet or so to the whorl of branches.

ed
 

sorce

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I bet if you were to cut a piece of this, it would give you the same output .

Therefore, I'd take a smaller airlayer and chop it after a couple years, then you can properly bind the new whorl into a broom!

Sorce
 

Cypress187

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I would maybe air layer 1 branch, not the whole thing!
 

Mister Ed

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Looks can be deceiving. The photos are closeups taken with a phone camera. The trunk is right at 3" in diameter and the branches about thumb sized. There's less than a foot of trunk showing in the photos. The whorl is a little lower then eye height when standing next to the tree.
 

Mister Ed

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Here are a couple more pictures. The trunk is actually about 2-1/2" in diameter. But, looking at it further, almost every branch could be air layered for a broom style bonsai and probably with better results.

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M. Frary

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I should think someone would ask what is it? And is it even suitable for bonsai.
 
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