Little Arakawa

[dbonsaiw]

I got this Arakawa as a seedling 2 years ago and planted it in the ground. I managed to cause/ignore the formation of ugly reverse taper pretty low down, so this year I decided to dig it up and chop it below the problem area.

Going to pursue more of a clip and grow approach on this one. Tree is maybe 3/4 inch thick and 2 inches tall at the new leader. I dont want to wire a new shoot in spring so I used a Velcro strip to hold the new leader at the desired angle for now. The plan is to develop a shohin size tree.

 

[Cadillactaste]

A seedling...then it wasn't a graft then. Which I had wondered...then re-read your post. Always a bold move... more power to ya.

 

[dbonsaiw]

A seedling...then it wasn't a graft then. Which I had wondered...then re-read your post. Always a bold move... more power to ya.

It was a little guy that I kind of mistreated initially. Then Many shoots popped a little above where the cut is now and I ignored them, causing a really weird bulbous section. I gave some thought to layering at the bulge but then just decided to chop.

But always better to be safe than sorry, so I picked up another rough bark maple seedling from Mr. Valavanis and will be much nicer to it.

 

[dbonsaiw]

A seedling...then it wasn't a graft then.

To be sure, it was a cutting from a "rough bark" maple which I referred to as Arakawa (even if it may technically not be).