AusBonsai

A couple more chops. This one is growing well.

This one's been growing happily throughout this mild summer.

There's a branch I'm using as a sacrifice (orange) to thicken up the first part of the branch I want to keep (green). The branch I want to keep does have new growth on it, but the sacrifice is growing much quicker. I'm wondering if I should cut back the sacrifice a bit now (not chop it off) to get a bit more energy going to the green branch, or should I just leave it alone for now? I probably want the base of the green branch (before the sacrifice) to double in thickness from where it is now, but don't want it to be too out of proportion with the part of the branch after the sacrifice.

My feeling is I should just leave it alone and worry about fattening up the part after the sacrifice later.

TIA!

greg27 wrote: ↑March 1st, 2021, 8:09 am My feeling is I should just leave it alone and worry about fattening up the part after the sacrifice later.

I would trust your feeling - the sacrifice should be helping to thicken the junction between your trunk (the spot below the green line) & the base of the branch (the start of the green line). A smoother transition from one to the other.

Don't sacrifice prematurely...

Agree, keep it growing for now to thicken more and make a better transition. Might take a bit more time but will be better than being too thin and then having to regrow another sacrifice later.

As suggested above...
Keep the sacrifice running until you get the girth of the branch to somewhere near 3/4 of what you want it to be, then I would look at removing it.

Cheers all, I'll leave it alone for now. I'll get the hang of this "patience" thing one day.

Hi Greg, can I just point out that you have two main branches coming out of the trunk. If you keep both of them as strong branches you will get a Y shaped tree, which may not look as desirable as there are conflicting directions for the eye to follow. If it were mine I would reduce the left branch and keep it as a smaller branch to avoid this conflict of directions.
Cheers, Frank.

Cheers Frank, appreciate that - the "slingshot" look was what I was aiming for

Still working on developing my design knowledge. In the meantime I'll take this one to a club workshop at some point.