Can anyone suggest a way to reverse the taper on my young spruce?

Bury it?

eangola wrote: Bury it?

So you would just "bury it" ? what... 6' down in concrete?

Can't really see the reverse taper but I assume there is. One way is to tournique the trunk at the point where it starts to taper with wire vertically tied with cable ties.
I have done this successfully on a Mugo Pine. It takes several years.

There's a slight bulge in the trunk where there was a branch at one time.

simplysaid wrote: Can anyone suggest a way to reverse the taper on my young spruce?

Air layer it where the bulge starts?

You could try trunk splitting if you want to keep the height.

BonsaiLearner wrote: You could try trunk splitting if you want to keep the height.

Hmmm... never heard of trunk splitting in Bonsai. I'll look it up.

Maybe get a tree better suited? Trunk shade is very hard to correct in an inobtrusive manner. I mean, you can create a huge shari over time and remove the wood. But...
Else indeed, air layer.
It looks like there might be a graft there which would make 2 reasons to not endeavour on this project, in my eyes.

leatherback wrote: Maybe get a tree better suited? Trunk shade is very hard to correct in an inobtrusive manner. I mean, you can create a huge shari over time and remove the wood. But...
Else indeed, air layer.
It looks like there might be a graft there which would make 2 reasons to not endeavour on this project, in my eyes.

I took a look at what's making the bulge in the trunk. Seems there was a branch there at one point and was either removed or died. Now it's a knot. Do you think this will grow out over time, or just get larger with the tree?