I hope you all are well and getting ready for the new season. I cant wait to get my hands dirty again
Now i could use some of your help. Especially choosing which branches to chop off or just prune.
I have a twin trunk larch that i got last year and had to repot due to the previous pot being too shallow and broken due to the cold. While repotting i noticed root rot and during this season i noticed the left trunk where there was more root rot being a lot weaker.
I asked Ryan what to do next with it in Forum Q A 192 and he recommended that the right trunk needed to be reduced and cut back so as to redistribute the energy and make the sparse photosynthetic mass of the weaker trunk more important to the tree.
Seeing as i am still new to our passion i am not sure which branches to reduce or chop off completely. I would appreciate some pointers from you guys. As a reference i would go by Nakas rules of which branches are faulty maybe (crossing branches, bar branches, etc). Any other ideas?
Here a picture of said tree beginning of january 2024.
I dont think there is a single video (but maybe I am wrong) that illustrates “branch hierarchy for sustainable design” but he regularly alludes to this design principle. This image isnt perfect but take it for what it is. I tried to make some marks on what I can see as cuts I would make but its really hard to make out in the 2d picture form.
One way to start to think about it is by starting at the base of the trunk and going up each branch should be “lesser” in size (thickness) than the previous brach. as you go up but also as you go out on each branch (everything is “tapering”) . This is why we work through the stages (Primary=thickest) (secondary=lesser than primary) (refinement=lesser than secondary)
You have some very nice material starting out. Which is something I was better about when I started. So keep it alive, reduce structural flaws while you learn more and you will have world class trees …in no time (based on bonsai tree timelines)
No worries, is it a European Larch?
I have a North American Larch- Yamadori I have to do an initial repot and style that I have a similar sentiment about. It actually has so many small twiggy branches I wasn’t able to post it for advice, so even more nervous!
i really like this tree 
