Some trident work

Well this is definitely nowhere near the 3inch caliper but I will start a progressive thread on the tree anyway.

I bought this small trident for less than $50 last summer, defoliated and repotted into a colander at the time and noticed the nice melting base on one side only with nothing for at least an inch on the other side. It was at this time I decided I'd try to thread graft some roots onto the bare side.


So to today's work, I cleared away the soil from the bare side. Normally I would pull the tree out of the pot and drill the hole from the root side up through the trunk but as it was just repotted last summer I didn't want to disturb too much so drilled from the top down.

For this I used some seedling tridents I got earlier this week from Matt at kaedebonsai. Good thing is, as they are from a much colder environment the buds haven't really swelled yet so it's easier to thread them though without damage.

I used a 1/16" pilot drill and only opened up to 5/64"to get the seedling to slide all the way through and fit nice and tight at the root base. I did 3, could probably use one more but didn't want to mess up and drill through any. Then I sealed both sides, covered with soil and watered. Fingers crossed these will grow strongly this year and should improve the rootbase significantly.

I have only seen thread grafts done, but they look pretty easy... Good job man! This should help your tree!