Regrafting to shorten a trunk

plant_dr27

Is it possible to shorten a long uninteresting trunk on a tree by cutting out a section in the middle and regrafting the top to the lower section of trunk? My candidate would be a garden center Acer dissectum 'Viridis' whose grafting point is quite high on the rootstock. I just want to "compactify" it by taking a few cars out from the middle of the train, so to speak. Would it be safer to do an air layer higher up on the roostock's trunk closer to the graft union? The trunk is about an inch in diameter.

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"I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid, and... I went ahead anyway" Crow T. Robot, MST3K

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watzone69

In the June, 2007 issue of Kinbon magazine it shows a process where this very thing was done to a Japanese Maple. The steps involved look very difficult and I for one would never dream of trying it!

Going from what I can make out from the photos (the magazine is Japanese) they first grafted seedlings to the upper part of the trunk, sort of a life support system. Later, they cut a section out of the middle and then reattached the top (with the life support still feeding it) to the bottom part of the trunk using screws and wires. Later the seedlings were cut off and I'll be darned if I can see where the trees were matched up!

I'm sure this took years to accomplish but, yes it is possible.

If you decide to try this and it fails, at least it would make a cool Halloween decoration... Frankentree!

Cheers,
Mike