AusBonsai

April update. This tree hasn't performed as well as my other entries. Growth has been slow. I also made a mistake and removed the wrong branch in choosing the two main leaders. I think the tree is too tall and unless something changes, I will probably take the top off after this competition and start again.
The tree must be maturing because it looks like I have some cones starting.

Bonus material To get some idea of how much growth is possible, I put a similar sized starter (1cm) in a colander at the beginning of the comp and sat it on the ground. The base is now around 20cm so they thicken up very quickly. I will be removing this soon as I need to redesign the area it is growing in.
I also tried to see how easy it was to air layer. This was a large leader probably 3 or 4m tall. I didn't measure how thick it was at the layering site but it is at least 6cm in diameter. It produced roots at the layer very quickly and it is shooting away well.

Wow, thanks for all the extra shots and info Terry. Enjoying watching this one.

As I mentioned in my April update, some of the decisions I made for this tree haven't worked out well. I have simply let this tree grow to get it as healthy as possible for its upcoming trunk chop, which will probably be somewhere around the red line. I have learned a number of things about growing Casuarina as part of this comp, so that is a plus. I still don't have a good grasp on branch and foliage management though but hopefully will in time.

This is the final shot of this tree for the competition but I may still update this thread as I redevelop it.

As mentioned in the previous post, this tree was destined for a trunk chop, which it got. Here is the response.
Will now have to decide how I want to style the tree to select my new leaders. Given the trunk has minimal taper, I could cut back quite low and try to develop a tree with more movement. Most of the example trees in my area are somewhat straight, which isn't helping my see what the final picture might be.