Ten Months of a hedged maple.

Smoke

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This maple was dug from the ground grown at a friends house. Treekutter here on the forum. The trees I dug were either paid for or traded for stands. This is a tree traded for a stand.

It is a rather small tree as far as height, but it has some girth and some massive taper. The tree is shown below as grown in the field. The tree had about a six foot sacrifice leader on it. This particular tree was dug in January of this year with no branches.
 

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Smoke

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The tree was root pruned as best I could and not kill the tree, and then planted out in cut down ten gallon nursery cans. Once planted I cut back the large sacrifice which had been partially cut back to travel home. The leader was cut back to the trunk with a small stub left and then all was sealed.
 

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Smoke

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The tree responeded well and grew strong all summer. It was grown in full sun and the tree was heavily fertlized all summer. The tree was continually hedged/sheared/pruned whatever you want to call it into a fairly conical shape all summer. The hedging serves a couple purposes.
One, it keeps the growth of the individual branches longer at the bottom and shorter at the top

And two, keeping it cut back continually keeps the internodes small and the leaves small without making huge coarse growth.
 

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Smoke

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The tree is pretty small being only 9 inches tall but with a 5 inch base. In mid summer the tree was defoliated and wired for shape. Super sumo proportions.
 

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Smoke

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Today I took off all the leaves just to see what was going on with the tree. The tree had a million branches that sprouted out from all the areas that had been cut back in June after defoliation. The hedging had kept all these small branches in check and and not grown overly large ruining the branch structure of the tree.

All the next photos are from today. The previous picture of the tree in leaf is from today but was shown to convey how the tree was hedged short throughout the summer.
 

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Smoke

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Now the tree was spur pruned and all the branches that I wish to keep for next year have been wired.

Next year the tree will begin to be hedged in between the individual branches to define the clouds of foliage. All twigs will be kept from now on since the basic tructure is set. This is what a maple looks like in Fresno in ten months.

I have about six of seven more this size to work on....Who ever said bonsai is for relaxing is not doing it for real because keeping up with 75+ tridents is alot more like work for me.....
 

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october

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I really like this tree! You know, I am not a maple guy. However, I think if I ever do start working with maples, it will be shohin/chunhin sumo style. This maple really appeals to me. Probably more so than the other sizes and styles of maples.

Rob
 

Smoke

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I really like this tree! You know, I am not a maple guy. However, I think if I ever do start working with maples, it will be shohin/chunhin sumo style. This maple really appeals to me. Probably more so than the other sizes and styles of maples.

Rob

Wait till you see a couple of the others. I spent more time on this one since it was the subject of many of my posts this summer on hedging maples. The others are a bit more course in the branching but the trunks are much better. This will be the first year to start doing root work on them since they were cut hard at digging. I expect to have a whole ten gallon tub full of roots and can cut away much of the heavy field rootage and concentrate on building a more spread base.
 

painter

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al how long do you think this guy was grown in the ground? it looks great and your a great inspiration
painter
ps you should see the trident seeds i grew following your lead!
 

Smoke

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al how long do you think this guy was grown in the ground? it looks great and your a great inspiration
painter
ps you should see the trident seeds i grew following your lead!

These were grown from cuttings and they were in the ground for five years from pencil size cuttings.

Don't "tell" me about your seeds "show" me the money!
 

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Awesome.It is nice to see the story behind the maple gems.Thanks for posting.
 

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Amazing to see something so nice coming out of that ugly first stump image. You know how to get these to sing for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing the "better" ones.
 

Smoke

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Here is one of the others. This is a shot as dug.
 

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Smoke

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Did some work tonight. Took off the leaves and did some pruning. Added some wire and even crossed the last one. You gotta love a big "X" right on the front.
 

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Smoke

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Couple of tips. When growing out the branches do not be afraid to cut back each year. Cut back all of this years growth to the first nodes. This next years growth will extend the branch and possbly add some forks. Then we can start to develop a nice branch. Keeping the overlong branches with long internodes makes no one happy.

Cut um back!
 

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cmeg1

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This is bonsai.Thanks for the pictures.I enjoy when a plant takes to annual cut back.Is is really nice to see such a branch develop.I am doing that on a small Chojubai.The first picture is current.It has been cut back two years.Wonder what they look like in 3 more.Now I want to put everything in the ground for a while.Just no room.Your trees look great.
 

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Smoke

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Thats the way to do it. Baby steps.
 

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I like this stump very much. Very fluid and still strong. Nice representation in pics exactly how-to-do-it.
 

fore

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This is bonsai.Thanks for the pictures.I enjoy when a plant takes to annual cut back.Is is really nice to see such a branch develop.I am doing that on a small Chojubai.The first picture is current.It has been cut back two years.Wonder what they look like in 3 more.Now I want to put everything in the ground for a while.Just no room.Your trees look great.

I'd not put the Chojubai in the ground. I did it to one spring '11, and after one winter in the ground here in Chicago, it had a fair amt. of die back. So now, all my Chojubai are in pots. I also think I read the same advice from Brent at Evergreen.
 
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