I need some advice. Any recommendations...

What sort of advice are you looking for?

I would pot it up deeper. The surface roots are showing. They should be in the ground in order to improve the nebari.

The trunk you have there is fairly thin, and very straight. Think about the sort of tree you are aiming at. What size, what shape. That will define which route to take.

Keep in mind that for a realistic tree-like result you will need a trunk that is much thicker. Generally speaking: 6 to 12 times the thickness of the trunk = final tree height.

Height is good. Angle of picture makes the trunk look straight but the main trunk line. See right trunk. Has a nice s-shaped forum. I am looking for advice on the new buds that are forming new branches and how to get the best ramification. I also have a decent amount of roots underneath what you see they're surrounded by a rock. Experimenting a bit.

You should not be thinking about ramification right now. You should do what LB said, he's right. The trunk are thin and straight. And you should cover the roots.

You need to create taper and nebari. Read this: www.bonsaiempire.com/basics/styling/advanced/trunk

The fact that the pictures make the trunk seem straight, makes that for bonsai pyrposes the tree is straight. Unless you have a formal upright / formal slanted in mind, you need to SEE the movement in the trunk.

If the height is what you want, you need to grow the trunk about 5 times as thick, I would guess. Use the side branches that have popped for this. Thin those to 1 per node.Ideally leave those sprouting from the futur back of the tree. Allow these to grow tall (2, 3 metres) and then remove them. Then you should have the desired thickness.
Or you just let the whole tree grow, and you do a cut-and-grow-and-cut routing on the main trunkline.

Thats exactly what I am going for long term. I have left the branches pretty much alone at this point. I didn't kill the tree when I chopped off over 80% of it's foliage and repoted. So that alone was an achievement. The twin trunj, as is now, and the growth of them are perfect for a left to right or a right to left informal. I just cut both trunks the same height initially, leaving about 1/3 of the trunk. I think I should of cut one of them shorter. Now, I don't which one that should be. The thicker trunk or the thinner one? I'd like to reduce one of them to a third of their length from the divergent point. Any thoughts. Let me try to get some better images up as well.

Here the other direction opposite side image. That tall skinny shoot is killing me. I want to cut back but already to much done this season. But how about in the future.

Bonsai is all about waiting, and waiting some more. You said it yourself: you have done enough this season. So leave it be, let it grow, look at it twice a day, tiurn it around, look at some real bonsai, and wait a bit more. Time and your tree will tell you what to do.

lucR wrote:

Bonsai is all about waiting, and waiting some more. You said it yourself: you have done enough this season. So leave it be, let it grow, look at it twice a day, tiurn it around, look at some real bonsai, and wait a bit more. Time and your tree will tell you what to do.

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