But what was the criticism? I really do not see the major benefit here..?
You take a few seedlings and let them merge together. So now you have different genetic strains in one plant. And you do not get a substantial thicker trunk to work with. I think it is less than a season worth of growth difference..?
The criticism he received was that it simply can’t be done. User shades_of_gravy was lambasted rather viciously for even trying something against the norm. Though he succeeded and not to much surprise, his follow up post wasn’t acknowledged by his nay-sayers.
I agree, having multiple sets of genetics contained within one specimen could cause some mishaps in the future. Or they may all express indistinguishable phenotypes. That is something the practitioner would find with time.
From what I understand, in the fruit growing business, there are often three types of stock used: a root stock, a trunk stock and a branch, or fruit bearing stock. The root stock is selected for hardiness or resistance against pests or fungal attacks, the trunk is selected for its size or dwarvism, allowing convenience of maintenance and harvesting and the branch stock for its desirable fruit.
Under this premise, one would in theory be able to circumvent the potential issue of rolling the dice on genetics in a “compound” organism. Essentially one would be creating the compound approach graft to quickly build a trunk/nebari. If someone was able to say, approach graft 15-20 seedlings together, for example, then I think it would definitely be worth it in terms of quickly accelerating the development of trunk girth and character. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a JBP seedling with as much girth as his in the follow-up post even at two years of age.
Once the fusion has fully taken hold and the vascular tissue is fully incorporated amongst all the individuals, say after 3-5 years, one would graft on a scion of a desired species to the newly formed trunk. This would ensure uniform foliar development and limit the possibility of having spotty growth if one of the veins and subsequent foliage dies off. I don’t think the remaining genetic difference within the roots and trunk would make any difference to the bonsai practitioner as the foliage is where you’d observe the greatest variance in phenotype with the naked eye. To be sure, you could also graft the new trunk on to a rootstock in order to prevent sections of your root system from spontaneously dying off via strangulation etc. I don’t know at what quantity of seedlings one would start to observe failure. Though you might end up with some cool looking dead veins until the healthier surrounding seedlings in the graft eventually consume and incorporate the dead ones. I also don’t know how long it would take for complete vascular incorporation amongst all the individuals and how long one would have to watch for sectioned die-off.
I understand this is some Frankenstein shit but if only for the expansion of knowledge into what is possible in the species and practice, I see it as worthwhile.
