with all but one of the grafts having taken, I removed all traces of the original saplings and sealed the wounds (pruning Acer species during the Spring can result in bleeding or sap loss and I prefer to use wound healer to prevent this). On the right of the picture above it is possible to see where one of the grafts had not been secured tightly enough against the trunkbase during the grafting process and had therefore not successfully taken. I will graft a new sapling into this area later in the year.