Harry Lauder Walking Stick Tree Damage From Training Pole - March 2021

Last year, we added a Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree to our backyard after seeing it a drive-thru buying experience at the Growing Place in Aurora.  We first saw - and fell in love - with this curving, interesting tree at Disneyland Paris outside of their Haunted Mansion (called Phantom Manor) and knew then that we should buy one of these contorted trees.  Where we planted it ended up being close to the 'focal point' we were trying to design along with the apex of the 'nook' that will (eventually) hid the fire pit area. 

The tree came with a bamboo pole that the tree was growing around and I pretty much just left it as is after planting.   But on a garden walk around recently, I noticed that the tree had begun to really grow AROUND that bamboo pole - especially down near the bottom.  So, I went ahead and tried to remove the pole, but it turned out harder than I expected.  After some sawing, cracking and twisting, I was able to remove the central bamboo pole.  But, now that it is removed, I'm seeing that there is some growth damage from the rod's location.  Kind of like the growth damage I see on my espalier trees.  Here, below, you can see how the tree grew *around* the pole and left some damage behind:

And here's another look (below) of a lower section.  The bamboo is totally removed and I'm thinking of how to replace it to allow for the training of the leader up top this season.  

I'm hopeful that the tree will respond to NOT having that bamboo pole right in the middle of it as it grows and without that to constrict the lower growth, I'm going to keep an eye on it this season.