Chris wrote:
I've cleared a lot of buckthorn from my lot and adjacent land (working
on a new section each year). When I got each area cleared, what
remained (whatever wasn't buckthorn) varied quite a bit, but the
buckthorn had done a lot of damage by shading out everything below a
certain height-- killing smaller trees, forcing others to extend long
unwieldy limbs to seek light (that's what the crabapples did). But
another response was for taller trees to abandon lower limbs and do all
their growing at the top. These trees now look spindly and misshapen.
If I were the kind of person who talks to trees, I'd say "Hey-- you
have space now. Try growing branches from the middle of the trunk." Is
there another way to get this message through? Maybe there's a way to
poke something into the bark that provokes a branch to start.
Suggestions appreciated.

I think the easiest kind of graft is a thread graft.

What you do is drill a hole through the tree, then bend a higher branch
down and poke it through the hole. When it's grown enough so the
branch is thicker on the end where it exits the trunk, cut the branch
off on the other side.

Of course, this only works if the trees are thin enough to drill
through and you have a branch you can bend around to where you want it.