Accidentally over-bent branch, small crack at collar - remove it?

[SU2]

This is on a 3mo old yamadori (bougainvillea, was hard-chopped to a 1' wide stump and transplanted), it was the 1st flush of growth and, once lignified and thickened a bit, I'd cut it back to a few nodes - I'd been pulling/guiding it horizontally while it was growing/supple, but once lignified and cut-back I kept doing that (giving its zip tie an extra little pull every several days) and eventually went too far... pictured is the slit/crack along the entire top of the branch right at the collar, it'd slowed growth on the new shoots this branch had but it seems to have gotten past that (they're growing fine now), but am wondering if I should still remove it? My logic for thinking that is that, after putting that crack there, there'll *always* be a stress fracture there that's just ready to snap, and that maybe instead of continuing to grow it I should just prune it off at the collar and start anew with a fresh shoot there?


[this picture shows where I've got the stress on it in case the crack wasn't clear in the 1st pic!]

 

[twisted trees]

Can we see the whole tree?

 

[0soyoung]

Hold it up (so as to close the gap), it will heal. Another season or two to be strong enough again to remove the support.

 

[Cadillactaste]

A dab of super glue and it will heal fine. I read that in a blog somewhere and tried it on my own bougainvillea.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Edit to go directly to super glue technique...

http://bonsai4me.com/Basics/BasicsRepairingSnappedBranches.htm

 

[drew33998]

Cut it. It should grow a new one from the same site. Prob try to grow 3 or more actually. Might need to cut the whole tree back to help it divert some energy from the apex.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I might say...if only a three month old yamadori...I would not be cutting things off it. But letting it just run wild with growth at this time. Worry about selection and removing branches at a later date.

 

[SU2]

Cut it. It should grow a new one from the same site. Prob try to grow 3 or more actually. Might need to cut the whole tree back to help it divert some energy from the apex.

Yeah I cut it, in fact there was already a little bud at the collar so not worried about a new shoot forming (shoots are badly needed in that area so seeing a bud there was a big relief!), I just couldn't go with the idea of having an always-weak joint (even if it heals over thoroughly there's still a line, a stress fracture, would hate to have it break 2yrs from now when it's holding a couple developed pads!)

I don't know if it was needed for resources to get to the cut spot but I did do a full cut-back, the thing doesn't even really have an apex as it was/is a flat, 1' wide stump, so it's more an act of growing a bunch of shoots that'll eventually hold a properly-shaped canopy, not the traditional 'leader/apex branch' dominant type of bonsai! (I've heard it referred to as 'italian style' in a mirai video, when a specimen is a thick stump that's basically got a thin, dense canopy hugging it - would love to what the actual word for that style is since 'italian style' didn't get me much in google and that's what I'm going to be going for on this one, it's all I can go for unless I want to wait years and years for a primary to develop but I'd rather just continue getting more material and developing trees based on the trunks they have, not actually doing work to develop trunks myself!)

 

[SU2]

Can we see the whole tree?

Yeah this is it a few weeks ago:

This is on april 3rd (day after collecting):


And the bougie itself before boxing (though I did cut those roots back more, unfortunately never got a shot of that)

 

[twisted trees]

I'd try and save it I guess by pushing it back up and cut pasting it. It will be weak for a few years but it looks like it would be good to keep the extra foliage for a while.

 

[SU2]

Already cut..

"weak for a few years"

If that's the case then I certainly made the right move in chopping it, that branch was just 4mo of growth, would sooner be four months behind than spend years with a weak branch collar (I'm clumsy, would probably end up snapping it, that's what really got me to decline saving it!)

 

[drew33998]

I wouldnt cut anything else off the rest of this year and maybe next. It needs to fill the box with roots.

 

[Nishant]

Just st yesterday I purposely cracked a long pyracantha shoot at three places about 15 cm apart to give a sharp bend rather than curved bend. Wrapped the wounded part with plastic tape and with a string on it.

The branch was green, about one cm thick. I am hopeful that the would will heal.

If the branch does not die, I think the plant will recover well enough.

 

[just.wing.it]

Did this stump make it?
Still with us?

 

[Nishant]

Hello Wing, I am not OP of this thread. Just added my recent experience and thoughts about h cracked branches.

 

[SU2]

A dab of super glue and it will heal fine. I read that in a blog somewhere and tried it on my own bougainvillea.

I'm unsure about this....you'd want the cambial pathways to reconnect and using glues instead of just pressure would impede that :/ FWIW, as I'm here commenting on my old thread, since posting that Q (lol I can't believe I had to ask that! So much to learn so quickly in bonsai!), I've found that yes, you can just press them back in-place, tape them, and then after a season of growth they seem 'like new'! I want to be clear I'm referencing bougies in FL, can't imagine other species (or bougies further north!) would be so tolerant!

Did this stump make it?
Still with us?

That's an interesting question...No, but yes! The stump was originally comprised of several (limbs or different trees, likely the former but the latter is possible), as you can see here:

so I knew it'd be a constantly-degrading stump, but I didn't expect the white fungus problem I got earlier this season, started on deadwood and quickly spread to live wood and, given that those once-tight individual limbs/trunks kind of "shrink back" when you collect something like this (obviously you're reducing cambial flow when collecting/chopping something like this! BTW I didn't make that trunk line I found the stump as it was!), and the fungus was going into those cracks, it would've enveloped & eaten the whole thing so I did something I'd thought may end up being necessary- separating the pieces/limbs of this 15" (before nebari) beast!) Over several days, using grinders/crowbar/everything, I was able to separate it to several specimen, one is absurdly unique and I like it very much, then just some funky ones that'll never be anything more than an interesting first-look specimen, nothing w/ any real potential... Here's some shots of the specimen that I made out of this stump, so no the stump didn't make it, but it is still with us!!
[first one is the one I like / think could be cool someday, I call it the Cobra BGY because of the upper limb lol, will be interesting to see how it turns out! The others are going to be a challenge to do anything worhtwhile with *except* for that mini one, that was just a branch I'd grown on the stump and had to remove to get to a spot to carve so I just rooted it to make a mame/shohin size specimen!]






[those pics are all recent, the split-up operation was done early enough that I was able to get the resultant pieces into the group of "forced Dec flowerings" and they all did as well as any other specimen I have!]

 

[just.wing.it]

Nice!

(Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain)

 

[Cadillactaste]

I'm unsure about this....you'd want the cambial pathways to reconnect and using glues instead of just pressure would impede that :/ FWIW, as I'm here commenting on my old thread, since posting that Q (lol I can't believe I had to ask that! So much to learn so quickly in bonsai!), I've found that yes, you can just press them back in-place, tape them, and then after a season of growth they seem 'like new'! I want to be clear I'm referencing bougies in FL, can't imagine other species (or bougies further north!) would be so tolerant!



That's an interesting question...No, but yes! The stump was originally comprised of several (limbs or different trees, likely the former but the latter is possible), as you can see here:
View attachment 221902
so I knew it'd be a constantly-degrading stump, but I didn't expect the white fungus problem I got earlier this season, started on deadwood and quickly spread to live wood and, given that those once-tight individual limbs/trunks kind of "shrink back" when you collect something like this (obviously you're reducing cambial flow when collecting/chopping something like this! BTW I didn't make that trunk line I found the stump as it was!), and the fungus was going into those cracks, it would've enveloped & eaten the whole thing so I did something I'd thought may end up being necessary- separating the pieces/limbs of this 15" (before nebari) beast!) Over several days, using grinders/crowbar/everything, I was able to separate it to several specimen, one is absurdly unique and I like it very much, then just some funky ones that'll never be anything more than an interesting first-look specimen, nothing w/ any real potential... Here's some shots of the specimen that I made out of this stump, so no the stump didn't make it, but it is still with us!!
[first one is the one I like / think could be cool someday, I call it the Cobra BGY because of the upper limb lol, will be interesting to see how it turns out! The others are going to be a challenge to do anything worhtwhile with *except* for that mini one, that was just a branch I'd grown on the stump and had to remove to get to a spot to carve so I just rooted it to make a mame/shohin size specimen!]
View attachment 221905

View attachment 221903

View attachment 221904 View attachment 221906 View attachment 221905 View attachment 221903

[those pics are all recent, the split-up operation was done early enough that I was able to get the resultant pieces into the group of "forced Dec flowerings" and they all did as well as any other specimen I have!]

You use just a small dab. Not enough to not allow it to heal. ? done it on a few of my trees. The branch remained viable. But, don't do it if your uncomfortable with the task.