Hi Gang,
Further to my post in the Show and Tell forum about a wild Cherry/plum plant I have a few more I'd like to talk.
Being the complete newbie that I am and only being able to learn so much thus far I am stumped by what to do here.
The Story:
Four year ago I pulled out a couple of sick/dying grafted apple trees (roots and all). The next spring they started to regrow from what must have been some remaining roots. My guess is that they are a type of Crab Apple that was used for the root stock.
Now I have two 3-year old trees. The thing is both need to come out fo the ground as other plans are in store for the garden. Now that I am discovering the pleasure of bonsai I would like to try and turn them over.
The first is currently about 2 meters with a truck diam of about 30-35mm. I thought with this one I take the base of the trunk back to about 20cm and maybe expose the crown of the roots (its quite thicker than the trunk and was exposed until the latest layer of garden mulch was put down). I also though I could maybe do some air-layering at about the 1/3 and 2/3 points (these are just below some strong branching). That could give me 3 plants out of the one tree. What do you think?:
The second is about 3 meters tall and has a trunk of about 50-60mm (also much thicker just under the fresh garden mulch). There is an interesting bend in the base of the trunk that I and another interesting fork at about the 1/2 way mark up the tree. I thought both features may be useful. As with the first I thought to cut the trunk right back and to air lay at one point to capture the odd fork:
Being the newbie that I am I am still not quite up with 'visualising' a general end goal or the overall potential. I do know these are tough as gutts though so perfect for me to learn on.
I know the pics are not great, but I was hoping for some comments on my ideas and/or some other suggestions for how to best utilise these trees. With winter on the way very soon it'll be time to make my move in the comming months and I'd like to have a game plan.
Thanks,
Aaron.