Hi All,
Last Monday I went to a meeting of a bonsai club in my area (Well.. 55km away; Still the nearest). IN any case.. Someone brought a horrible looking acer in. SSome of the people there looked at it, and decided: That's doomed to fail, as it has no roots on one side of the plant. So.. It was off to the chipper for that one. I decided: Why toss it. Worst case scenario: Air-layer to create a new root ball. after all, the species is quite nice.



At home I took it out of the pot. And first surprise: THere were 4 plants. So that already made it a good decision. I now have 3 small saplings sitting burried deep for winter, one of them over a pointed rock.



When I washed away the soil, one side of the tree was ugly. The other was uglier.



So.. I have now clipped of one of the imbalanced roots. That was not so dificult to decide. It grow almost halfway around the trunk, and crossen the second largest root to create a thick lump of roots on one side.





Now however, I would like to find a way to stimulate root=growt on the other side. Nasty challenge: THat side of the tree hardly has any live material, with also the bark being dead from a cm above the ground up. I planted the tree in full ground, with the root-less and half-dead side of the plant facing south, hoping this will stimulate budding on the trunk, and so create a new root at the base. Are there other tricks I might use, before going down the soil-layering path?

Hmm i have that problem with one of my acacias. Try cutting some bark off of the side where you want roots and apply rooting hormone and then plant it deep into the ground. You could also try air layering the tree, will take a long time but you could basically start from scratch with the tree by growing roots just above the present roots and then completely cut off the bottom of the tree

You could also perform a thread graft:

www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATthreadgraftingroots.htm

Here is a nice link for air layering too incase you didnt quite know enough about it:

www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATLayering.html

Haha sorry about my above post, i just read that you were already considering air layering

Hi Jelle,

What a rescue! You will soon become known as the "tree rescuer"! :lol:

Personally, I would airlayer it where that ugly, sharp angle appears and the leaves begin and get rid of the whole bottom half section...it makes the whole tree so off-balance and hideous looking. :sick: The upper half has some nice movement happening and, in my opnion, has some nice potential. But then, that's just a matter of personal preference, right? Ugh!...even looking at it bothers me! LOL! Looking forward to seeing what you decide for this one and it's future progression.

hey LB,
joncoh might have the right idea with the tread graft.you have well rooted youngin's to work with that are the same speicies,you already have the branch scar there at the right height for a first branch and it is on the opposite side of the bare root area,you would have to do some kind of trunk fusion technique which is my only concern . this is a master grade move but you seem knowledgelbe enough, i think you can handle it. also if that was my tree i would chop the growth from the top and start again with the newly sprouted branches. that route would give you good branch graduation stating with the graft.ten years time you would never see the work that was done
i just can't beleive that a bonsai enthusiast would consider just throwing a tree out because it isn't a perfect easy creation. great masters go to such lengths to create the perfect tree; drilling,grafting,splitting, cracking branches just to acheive their vision.maybe thats the differance between japanese and american bonsai,old school and the new faster not better way.
:blink: o.k. i think im done ramblin' now i just hate tree killers (christmas trees really bother me too ) nice tree by the way keep us posted.

Hey guys and girls
I would try the rooting powder way first(if it were my tree). Thread grafting can leave a nasty scar, and takes quite a long time.
I think that tree needs a trunk chop. IT has great potential....with work.
Looks like a fun project. Good luck and have a bunch of fun with it.
The way I see it, the tree was good as dead anyway.

Haha, the thick acer died 2 years later. One of theyoung ones is still in a growing bed, suffering some fungal infection I think.