Brian Underwood
Chumono
Here is a trident maple I bought 2 years ago from Lone Pine Gardens. It was very ugly when I got it, and had very few branches to work with. My main attraction to it was it's trunk, which has LOTS of movement. I let it grow for one year, did the first styling/wiring in December 2009, and removed the wire this spring, just as it started to cut in. I repotted it around march, let it grow at least 6" from feeding and freedom, and defoliated it, leaving one leaf at the end of each branch (to prevent dieback).
I just finished the re-wire today, and I think it came out pretty decent. It is of course wired mostly like a conifer, which seems to be my tendency with most of my trees. Bad habit I guess... The ramification is increasing incredibly fast, and will require at least one more defoliation/re-wire this summer. My future plans include an aggressive feeding regimen, defoliation, wire (rinse and repeat), scoring the wounds to encourage rollover and healing, and hopefully I will have a decent tree in another couple years. I have a much larger trident I will be doing a similar procedure to, which will require a thread of it's own. Enjoy!
I just finished the re-wire today, and I think it came out pretty decent. It is of course wired mostly like a conifer, which seems to be my tendency with most of my trees. Bad habit I guess... The ramification is increasing incredibly fast, and will require at least one more defoliation/re-wire this summer. My future plans include an aggressive feeding regimen, defoliation, wire (rinse and repeat), scoring the wounds to encourage rollover and healing, and hopefully I will have a decent tree in another couple years. I have a much larger trident I will be doing a similar procedure to, which will require a thread of it's own. Enjoy!