I didn't read all six pages, just your intro and a few of the responses and then cut to the present so pardon me if this was already presented. I saw your header and just had to throw in dos pesos.
Man nothing sucks about these trees and like any tree you have to work within the parameters of the tree.
These are no different than many of the Japanese Maple seedlings that I have grown and developed in spite of being told that those are no good for bonsai.
I am in the end game with several with ten to fifteen years of training with well established branches and refining the canopy. Oh those long internodes and big leaves have been a nuisance all along, but with careful monitoring and maintenance I've been able to grow out some nice branches with movement. Now I'm getting these four inch internodes and a set of leaves four inches outside the canopy. Now on a, on a what, different tree, a tree with short internodes (I didn't want to say better tree) there would be three or four sets of leaves and you can cut it back to the first set of leaves and tuck it back in the canopy. On these, as with my Japanese maples, there's nothing there to cut the shoot back to. You have to push out new shoots around the base of that by cutting it to the first set of leaves and wait. It looks yucky with that prong with two leaves sticking out of the canopy, but soon it will pop several shoots and you can cut the rest of the first shoot off. You can pick and choose the new shoots and I usually cut them all out except one. Over crowding gets to be a problem real fast. I try not to get overly defined or strict with the styling. You can't make a nice tight foliage pad like you can with a Shishigashira or Kiyohime or other dwarf cultivars. It's a constant struggle and it's one I'm willing to accept to grow these wonderfully different anyway.
