Okay, fast-forward a little more than three years . . .
The thread grafting I spoke of above did not work out so well. The grafts tended to die rather than taking, but one or two did take, and the wounds healed over quickly. Last year, I did an approach graft for a new root, and it has taken well. I've been cutting back the top of the seedling this summer, and will remove it entirely very soon. You can see it at the bottom right of the trunk, with the foliage wired straight back from the trunk.
The rest of the tree grew well. Actually, I should rephrase that . . . it grew like a BEAST. I had a difficult time keeping it wired, as the wires cut in amazingly quickly, and I have had little time to devote to rewiring this tree. I used some guy wires to bring the larger branches down a bit, as they were gradually heading for the sky, and even they cut in badly. Those wounds have pretty much healed this summer already.
My answer to the previous question about the healing time for the large wounds turned out to be spot on . . . two years and they were healed.
As the tree grew, it became obvious that I was styling from the new "back" of the tree. I turned it almost 180 degrees when I repotted it this summer, and I think it is much better now. It has had it's apex removed twice in order to keep the growth in check, and each of those apices were rooted. They have both turned out to be very nice little shohin trees with amazing taper.
So, I think that pretty much caught us up to this photo. I just recently rewired the tree, so I'll probably have to take it all off again way too soon. The black stuff on the upper trunk is rubber splicing tape, placed to pad the trunk from the wire as I bent that part of the trunk quite a bit. It was large, so I had to use a guy-wire to keep it in place. Basically, the splicing tape is there as a substitute for raffia. It also works well for grafting, and it sticks to nothing but itself.
I hope you all have enjoyed this story, and maybe learned a thing or two in the process. I know I did . . .
Thanks for reading!
PS: I had trouble uploading this photo, as it was too large. The size of the photo I did manage to upload is so small you cannot see much detail. For a larger view, please click through to my flickr site here:
Tigerbark Ficus. Feel free to browse my site if you wish. I've been working on my photography skills lately . . .