Steve Kudela
Shohin
Hey folks, here are several photos of an older collected tree. Collected 27 years ago from near the St. Mark's river in north Florida. It was a 20 footer cut back to 16 inches or so with no branches whatsoever. I had the expectation of it breaking buds up and down the stump.....the tree had others ideas. Got it boxed up and ready for spring bud break. Spring came and went and no buds, early summer,no buds. It was using water everyday, I was baffled. Then somewhere around the middle of July, I noticed that the bark had separated from the wood up at the top cut. I looked down in the gap and saw what appeared to be scar tissue forming. Continued watering and a couple of weeks later in early August, the scar tissue had reached the light and began to finally form buds all around that cut! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I'd never heard of that happening. I should also say that the cut was a sloped cut rather than straight across. Since the original plan was gone, I just let it grow and decided to figure out something else later. It grew pretty much untouched for the next 7 or 8 years until it reached a height of about 10 feet. In that period, that sloped cut completely healed over. At that point, I began removing branches and got it moving towards what you see here. 2 more years to thicken the bottom right branch and it will be ready for a shallow oval pot. I'm never in a hurry to get something into a bonsai pot. It just slows everything down in development. Please feel free to comment, positive or negative, and ask any questions. I'll be glad to help in any way I can. Thanks..........SK