This is a very good example of the uselessness of stumping trees without a plan and/or the years and years of follow-through necessary. Let grow, stump, let grow, stump, let grow, stump, ad infinitum is only worthwhile, if and only if, the stumper is going to keep the tree and is going to apply a plan from day one to year 10, or more. You can talk about thread-grafting, et al, and all the sophisticated techniques that can be learned and applied, but truth be known, damn few will see the light of day because the normal mortality rate of all trees is much more likely to intervene. Trees in bonsai are already at a steep disadvantage to the vagaries of weather and watering and winter and a hundred other unnatural conditions. They don't need to be robbed of the photosynthesizing equipment every other year to give up and die.
Anyone who is new enough to bonsai to need to ask for advice on what to do next shouldn't buy something like this, or create something like this. They should buy as good of candidate stock as they can that look like trees and nurture them on. And unfortunately, they need to be told so, the sooner, the better. So I'm the bad actor here, but people quit bonsai because of failure, or at least the lack of satisfactory personal success. I'm here to tell the world that you can make dozens of nice bonsai with the same effort that will have to be applied to this one, disfigured stick in a pot. Gauge the net volume of personal satisfaction for yourself.
