huge yamadori yew

[manofthetrees]

howdy y'all

here is my latest aquasition. my father in law wanted it removed so I figured bonsai it ...4 hours of cutting digging through rocky clay and chopping roots heres the days pics. the original size is roughly 3 foot by 5 foot

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff001-4.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff004-2.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff006-2.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff007-1.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff008-1.jpg[/img]

as you may notice the tote I planed to you was hilariously undersized so I wrapped it up and took it home . it sat in a wheelbarrow tillthe next day while I constructed a new home here he is
[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff013.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff012.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff011.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff014-1.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff377/manofthetrees1/treestuff010-1.jpg[/img]

the intirior dimensions of the box are 32in by 28in and 9in deep to give an idea on size.the problem now it how to style it ... I have a couple years to decide

[kdodds]

Wow, that is a lot larger than I would ever have suspected. Full sun yew, eh?

So... style... You've PLENTY of choices here. If you want to keep the whole tree (or most of it), the last picture as front, lose the rightward pointing branches and the lower ones on the left and you've got a nice, though huge, windswept start. I can see a lot of possible trunk lines, my favorite for a single being the already curved center branch in pic 7? I think. I would either do the windswept clump, or choose a single trunk. The base, I think, is too much for a two or three multi-trunk. You could also consider splitting the base (probably the best option) across multiple trunks. This will probably take the most time to redevelop roots for each individual trunk, but would leave you with many trees to work and/or sell.

[manofthetrees]

your tellin' me I never really paid attention to it (seen it dozens of times) and originaly thought it might be 2. it has a 12+ inch knot that everything sprouts from its crazy .I think ive mulled over evrything you stated on my own plus a few others so I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, I do agree about loosing the right faceing branches tho, I'm treating them as sacrafice branches until it starts growing well again. I'm going to have to do some pic searching to get some insparation

[kdodds]

Yep... keep in mind that what you have now, most of the tree, is worthless, hence my statement about dividing the clump. The branches aren't close enough for a clump, but you could certainly airlayer the trunks off independently too.

[manofthetrees]

just an update ...all branches are budding on the ends of the old growth so I did something right

[kdodds]

Awesome, but don't let that tempt you into working it. Let it recover until next year (at least).

[manofthetrees]

oh don't worry I'm planning 2 years.I'm hoping to get it back to having a full canopy before any cutting...maybe some wire or a tiedown or 2 next year but thats it .it may take that long to figure out how the heck to style this sucker