Styling advise for Murraya paniculata

[magpie]

Around 2 years ago this tree was rescued from a pile of council clean up. I think it was sitting there in hot summer for whole day or 2. I didn't have much hope anyway decided to go ahead and have a try. Sorry I don't have before pictures but this is how it is this year. It recovered well and ready for some initial work.
some dimensions -
trunk girth- 50mm
nebari- 80mm
height from the rim of the pot- 50cm

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What I have heard about murraya so far is, they are good for big bonsai because their compound and not reducible leaf size. Anyway I am hoping to go for medium size one.
I am looking forward for your advise.
Thanks

[Bougy Fan]

I would remove 2 of the 3 trunks and cut back the remaining one. At the moment the crossing trunks are very confusing and the trunks don't have much taper. Chop and regrow to try and get some taper.

Tony

[Steven]

Hi Magpie,

You should remove more of the soil from the base so you can pick the best front. I suspect that there will be a better root spread than what you can currently see.
Then you can decide which trunk or trunks to keep. What ever you keep I think they should be reduced significantly.

Regards,
Steven

[magpie]

Thank you Tony and Steven
I will dig around the base and have a better look tomorrow morning. My plan for this is jin 1 or 2 side branches and cut down fair amount of main trunk and regrow from there.
Magpie

[Dario]

Hi Magpie, the second pic..."my intended front" and the last pic..."close up- lower trunk", appear to be the same view.
Would you perhaps consider removing the centre trunk (thickest one), and then either keeping both remaining trunks shortening both substancially (with the thinest trunk/branch on the right shortened the most)...or perhaps going for a single trunk tree and removing the thickest centre trunk and the thinest one on the right, once again substancially shortening the remaing trunk on the left.
Both of these options would give you taer and movement requiring you to regrow from there as you plan to do anyway. Just an idea?
Good luck with your plans for the future of this one Magpie! It has very nice bark texture
Cheers, Dario.

[chrisatrocky]

yep find some nabari and go from there. and here is my thoughts.

remove the thinnest and thickest trunks leaving the one which will give the best taper.

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[magpie]

Hi Dario and chrisatrocky, Thank you for your opinions. I will definitely thought about them in coming weeks.
Thank you Steven for remind me bonsai basics ( first- dig up and see the root spread )

This is what I found after removing some top soil, a good nebari which spread more than 15cm.

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Magpie

[bodhidharma]

Thats a good beginning Magpie. you do really need to chop your tree to alleviate the triple trunk confusion. If it is difficult for you to do so, chop all three trunks to about 100mm in height and look at it for a while, something always comes to mind.

[magpie]

Yep bodhidharma, the chop will be done very soon. I will do it as you suggested and keep it somewhere I can see it on and off. Hope something cross my mind.
Magpie