How do I fix this reverse taper?

[Noulinator]

Any ideas how to fix this reverse taper without doing an airlayer?
Grafting seedlings, scarring or grafting a sacrifice branch below?

I got the tree fairly cheap and I intend to clean up the bulges on the trunk this year and do some branch selection and wiring.

Seems like a fun project.

 

[pandacular]

Any ideas how to fix this reverse taper without doing an airlayer?

Seems like you know the answer. The root spread is quite poor, why avoid a layer?

 

[Noulinator]

Seems like you know the answer. The root spread is quite poor, why avoid a layer?

I kinda like the “movement” of the trunk, and think it would ruin the look. Any ideas for a layer placement and angle?

 

[pandacular]

If you want to keep that first bend, you could put your layer just at the widest point of the lower knob. I would also consider removing/layering the top section, as the middle of the tree is a bit of a stovepipe.

Good project tree for sure.

 

[Jrmcmich]

Assume that at graft point? Hard to tell just a guess. But if you did decide to layer it at that junction think would be nice movement still.

 

[Shibui]

I've tried scarring to increase trunk thickness. Not entirely satisfied with the technique. It worked a bit on one tree but took around 5 years to make much difference. The lump on the other tree grew faster than the scarred area so defeated me.

Grafting a sacrifice branch might work but the callus caused by healing the wound is more likely to increase the thickened area when you remove the sacrifice branch.

If the nebari is poor, grafting more roots into the base might slowly enlarge the base.

All the techniques I've tried are slow so don't expect instant success with anything. Even layering will probably take 5 years or more before the new roots are thick enough to expose as nebari.

 

[Woocash]

Grow a sacrifice, bend it through the middle of the bulge on the left hand side of the first pic and get yourself a new primary branch. Or layer off the top thick branch and graft it on at the bulge. If you've got the skills. I'm not advocating fully, just saying what I see. Nice project, I agree.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I don’t really see what I would consider reverse taper from those photos. If it’s low enough, consider thread-grafting a couple seedlings through the trunk to create nebari at the soil level, and over a few years, it will spread enough to fix the problem. Look at some @MACH5 and @Dav4 threads to see how that is done.

 

[leatherback]

Looking at the full trunk, I would not worry about the shape of the lower trunk.

If you do proper, aggressive rootwork every other year and push the tree to really grow for a few years [e.g., aim for a 50% increase in diameter] you probably get the easiest results; Many lumps will even out, and with the rootwork you broaden the base of the tree significantly.

 

[leatherback]

[whatever you decide, I hope you have covered your roots properly again, else you might loose these smaller roots; Nebari development happens below-ground.]