terrestrial_man: lol IÂm a writer. I am rather familiar with Photoshop CS2 and write tutorials for it from time to time. Though, I find adding text to an image to be posted on this forum to be a bit cumbersome, at least in large volume. Textual highlights are at most times warranted. I also have years of experience in creating web pages; programming by hand. The USDA doesnÂt list regions for my state that seems to be why my tree species its not listed. Yes, I will be gradually exposing the roots over time. Though, I doubt I will need to for this one. The root system has already begun to harden up to where being exposed wonÂt cause harm. Not that I will risk exposure it for another year or two to be on the safe side. I am making it a point to take progressive photos of all my bonsai. IÂm now letting my root-over-rock bonsai thicken up at the base and two main trunks. In the end, I plan on this being a cascade or semi-cascade tree. I wonÂt be wiring it and will instead attempt this through pruning and pinching. Buy cheap paint and paint your plastic pool. White is best. It will extend its life by blocking UV radiation and oxygen. Both can degrade plastics rapidly, some faster than others. Root over rock is very easy to do especially if the plant is very young and the roots very thin. Picking the correct rock is the most difficult part, aside from patience. It should have a nice flat bottom, look good, and have lots of crags and crevices for the roots to flow around and through. The next time IÂm in the mountains I plan on looking for such stones. IÂve planned on cutting the bottom of stones flat if I need to. HereÂs an example of another bonsai I began last year. I found a rather tall, thin, and branchless maple sapling near my pond. The result of all that flimsiness is this, (Maple) 125KB. This is of course not an actual bonsai style and is instead uses mounds of artistic licensing. IÂm basically going to attempt to make it look like itÂs a dragon swimming in water. IÂm sure it wonÂt look too much like that, but it will be interesting to say the least. IÂve yet to repot this one this year and am waiting till at least next year to repot. My next traditional bonsai subject will be in the "exposed root" (not my tree), and I plan to go to extremes with it. IÂll be planting my subject tree in a very long narrow plastic pipe that is stood on end. Each year the pipe will be cut shorter from the top, exposing a little more root each time. The pipe itself will be planted in a large pot for when the roots finally reach the bottom. Though, I prefer the Sekijoju instead. I like stones. lol

My fiddle has the same problems. From what I've read the best thing to do not remove the bottom leaves until the trunk thickens. The spots look like oedema, mine has gotten the same because I left it outside in the cold.

you can use stick to straighten the stem, so it doesn't lean. top up the soil and cover the sticking roots. other than that the usual. provide as much light as you can and appropriate watering. provide artificial light for the upcoming winter moths. do that and the stem will fortify and straighten. if you want a bigger intervention you can cut the stem close to the ground and let it branch out and thicken. Your plant actually looks pretty good, not much wrong with it.

It is not lacKing any light - as I said and Showed in my post. of course branches are getting longer - where else it this tree supposed to create growth? :) those buds did not just randomly show up on a trunk they are a result of pruning and appeared after someone has pruned it. They are second highest buds on a branch , first ones sprouted into branches. They are not dead Or dry, it may appear so on the picture because what you see is their sheaths still covering them. Those highest buds looked exactly the same in the beginning before growing and sprouting. If I look closesy I can see a peak of a green leaf underneath sheaths so I don’t believe they are dead. If you suggest they are axillary buds - they might be but that still means they are not dead, just dormant for an unknown period of time, so I wouldnt loose my hope just yet:)