This is a hackberry I’ve been working on since 2016. This spring during the repot I discovered the nebari that was hidden under the soil and seems destined for the front. Problem was the straight trunk line in the middle. After leaf fall this week I applied a guy wire that I think may help the issue. It opened up the right side a bit too. It will be interesting to see how it looks next spring after it opens up.
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March 21
May 21
Dec 22
Still not satisfied it was time for a more drastic move.
I chopped off the top and decided to start regrowing the apex up to the right. Chopped in Dec 22 last photo is Nov 23
Definitely an improvement. Can you put some curvature into the straight part? Even it if is too thick for wire, I imagine that you can do something with rebar and a block in the middle. Even a small amount of curve will help in my opinion.
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After watching the hackberry stream last week this is exactly what I decided needed to be done. This is todays task.
Sorry about the poor use of a new editing tool. My eye kept getting stuck on the lack of taper, hopefully the wiring of the straight section reduces some of that visual mass but if not eventually cutting back to this branch and wiring it up as the new leader might be an improvement in the overall longevity of the trees design? I also didnt notice how old this thread was until I responded
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It’s kind of difficult to see the benefits of this bend yet. It pushed a lot of the inner branches together. The trunk was about 3/8” thick so I was able to get some bend in. late spring I’ll come back and clean up the branching. To be clear, the original post is old but the refinement still continues.
It makes a huge difference in breaking up that straight portion , very nice 
Once the bend sets I may see how it looks pulled down more to the left. Open up the compressed right side.
Time to repot and remove the wire. The bend is subtle. Here are the two views. Keep in mind this is a bit of a mess with the branch structure. It will get trimmed after post flush harden. I included a few side views to help show that bottom branch that would be situated to the front, this definitely needs to be brought in a bit. A new leader is ready for elongation. This is a rebuilding project.
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The bottom front branch just wasn’t right so it had to go. Big improvement to opening up the trunk view and that winding root can stay up front.
