Advice on what to do with this JPB

[ianmcglocklin]

Found it at a random nursery while driving around at work, I like that it has a low branch off the trunk and it's maybe 11/2" thick at soil level. No movement on trunk and has that ugly swelling where the three top beanch come out. A trunk chop is clearly needed, but should I let it thicken up more first by repotting in a bigger container for a few years ( live in apartments so can't plant in ground) or make the chop this year and hope a new bud appears somewhere above that first branch to develope as new leader? Thanks for any advice in advance. Love you guys and always appreciate all the shared knowledge.
Oh also I live in the bay area of California so it's early in the growing season.

 

[ianmcglocklin]

Just picked it up yesterday, haven't done anything other than look, visualize, look, and dream.

 

[WavyGaby]

Nice find. You have a bunch of options to use the low back budding for a smaller tree or you can go with a bigger design.
You have time to decide but in the meantime I think the following is a happy medium that allows you to take some action and open light for the lower growth to develop and to get some movement in the trunk and branches.

Remove low needles at the first junction (teal circle)
Cut center trunk off (red) or strip needles and keep it as a sacrifice by bending it sideways and up out of the way.
Wire remaining portions (yellow)
Dark green are future pads. I would also pull needles near the candles on the remaining branches to reduce vigor and open light to encourage backbudding in these branches.

Good luck!

 

[ianmcglocklin]

Do you recommend cutting back any of the other branches besides the middle main trunk? I definitely don't want to keep it as a sacrifice branch because it is already bulging too much at those three branches and causing inverse taper. I like your idea and appreciate your time.

 

[ianmcglocklin]

In your picture are you recommending wiring down that thick left branch with all the candles on it? Or is that second yellow representing the little candle right by the junction?

 

[WavyGaby]

Happy to help! Glad you like it. Yes, I would also cut the new leader and left side branches. You could do all of the cutting now or through June to give it time to back bud the remainder of the year. Fertilize heavy and the following year you should be able to cut the branches back more to the new growth that comes out.

To your second comment, I was recommending wiring the big branch down. You should not need the small shoot below that for the design. However, you could use the small shoot in place of the bigger branch in the future. If you are unsure, keep the small shoot for now and make sure it beefs up before making the big cut above it.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Allow all foliage to grow and harden off for what it will add to lower trunk size. Then cut back to lowest woody branch to get movement in trunk ASAP as straightness is undesirable. Would suggest to decandle said low branch to get all branching possible down low on it. Put movement into this branch with what you want to keep of it. You may want to cut back to develop more taper in a couple years. As a different approach you may keep upper foliage for awhile to make basal trunk bigger bearing in mind the bigger it is before cut back the longer it will take for the branch to blend in after the cut is made.

 

[ianmcglocklin]

Potawatomi, is this your suggestioning to or did you mean chip down to the very first branch,?