To be fair to the OP, I thought the main point from reading post #1 has been "growing from scratch take as much time as chopping a large trunk to create the same image"; and you won't have a large butt hole scar to deal with. I could be wrong though.
But I do think about this sometimes...
No, he says he’s never actually seen a ‘Tater. Which means he’s never been to a decent show. Which means he really has no clue as to what he’s talking about!
In the bonsai world, the style Forsoothe calls “Tater” is referred to as “Sumo”. Big fat trunks with a fast taper.
As with any style, there are good examples, and poor examples. The poor examples will show big scars, better ones do not. As the tree is developing, some amount of scarring is inevitable. Over time the scarring becomes less evident, and may even disappear entirely. Any freshly chopped tree is going to show a dramatic change of caliper at the chop site for quite some time. For how long that persists depends partly on the species of tree, and a great deal upon the skills of the owner.
The approach Forsoothe appears to advocate is to just take a tree and start to ramify the existing branches. Prune away unnecessary branches coming off the trunk, shorten the remaining branches, and start pinching new growth to increase the number of small twigs. Build ramification. This approach can yield an attractive looking tree, especially deciduous tree, when viewed when in leaf.
However, the Winter image will show the inherent faults that had never been addressed. Most likely, there will be little to no taper in the trunk. Or the branches. Often, all the branches coming off the trunk will be the same caliper. Or even worse, the branches near the apex will be heavy, and the branches down low will be thin, if not downright weak because the dense upper canopy created by the dense ramification will block the sun from the lower branches.
When the tree is bare of leaves, the structure can be seen. Poor structure is readily apparent. That’s why the big shows in Japan are usually in the winter. That’s when you can really see what the deciduous trees are made of. Foliage can hide a lot of faults.
Here is an example of a Sumo trident under development:
The tree has a fast taper, obvious caliper transitions from chops. Thin branches. The process is to wire the branches to their future direction, then let it grow! No pinching! After it’s grown out, then cut back hard, and grow out again. And again. No ramification work until the primary branches, the secondary branches and tertiary branches are created with taper. This takes several years.
Here’s the image after several years of work:
It’s still not finished, but it’s on it’s way.
