Trident Maple #4

jquast

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Wanted to start chronicling the development of a trident maple that I’ve had growing for several years now. This is an air layer that I took about eight years ago and put into an Anderson T-flat after removing it from the parent tree. When we moved five years ago it was put in the corner of the yard a just allowed to grow free and has now gotten almost 20 feet tall.

I've been slowly uncovering the soil to begin exposing the base and was quite happy with the progress so far. I will most likely reduce it down to about 18 inches next spring and see where things pop and begin developing the next section of the trunk.

-jeff
 

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MACH5

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Very nice Jeff! That base looks excellent. Is it like that 360?
 

jquast

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Very nice Jeff! That base looks excellent. Is it like that 360?

Thanks Mach! There is a very small section on the back side that will need some work but otherwise most of the base has very nice flare.
 

jquast

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two more pictures, one from the other side.
 

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Coach

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two more pictures, one from the other side.

Awesome material, that base is huge, nice!!!

Over the last 8 years have you seen a significant increase in trunk girth or has this always been a large piece? (I ask because I want to grow a Trident like this and yours has been in a pot so long...I just want to compare pot for 8 vs in ground for 8.)

Any chance we can see a pic of the tree as is now above the base, maybe even all 20 ft :)? I'm curious about what natural untouched taper looks like in a Trident this size...aaaand did you fertilize or literally just "forget" about it off in the corner?
 

AboveBeyond

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Awesome material, that base is huge, nice!!!

Over the last 8 years have you seen a significant increase in trunk girth or has this always been a large piece? (I ask because I want to grow a Trident like this and yours has been in a pot so long...I just want to compare pot for 8 vs in ground for 8.)

Any chance we can see a pic of the tree as is now above the base, maybe even all 20 ft :)? I'm curious about what natural untouched taper looks like in a Trident this size...aaaand did you fertilize or literally just "forget" about it off in the corner?
I curious about this too.
 

barrosinc

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very impressive, did the roots escape to the ground?
 

jquast

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Awesome material, that base is huge, nice!!!

Over the last 8 years have you seen a significant increase in trunk girth or has this always been a large piece? (I ask because I want to grow a Trident like this and yours has been in a pot so long...I just want to compare pot for 8 vs in ground for 8.)

Any chance we can see a pic of the tree as is now above the base, maybe even all 20 ft :)? I'm curious about what natural untouched taper looks like in a Trident this size...aaaand did you fertilize or literally just "forget" about it off in the corner?

Coach,

Not a whole lot of taper in the trunk until the split a few feet up. Just to compare ground growing vs growing in a pot, here is a link to the parent tree that this was layered off several years ago. Easy to see the benefits of ground growing for putting size on a trunk in a few short years.

I heavily fed this tree and had it set-up on a drip system with a soaker hose ringed around the trunk so that the roots in the T-Flat received plenty of water. It has gotten slow release fertilizer (Osmocote and then Apex (2014/15)) since it has been in the ground and liquid feeding at least twice a month the past two growing seasons. No pruning top or bottom since it was placed on the ground allowing the roots to escape.

-jeff
 

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jquast

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very impressive, did the roots escape to the ground?
Hi Max,

The roots have definately escaped into the ground. This is in a raised bed built out of paving stones so when it comes time to dig it out I just need to remove the stones and undercut the roots. Should be fairly easy when I get ready to move it into a training pot.
 

Coach

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Thank you for the detailed response and pics of the whole tree!...I really appreciate you taking the time to explain how you did this...I can see now how important it is to put down the shears, feed it and just let it grow in order to develop a worthy base. That will be a tough new lesson for me :) thanks for proving it is important and works
 

barrosinc

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How long do you think the next section will take? 3-4 years?
 

JoeR

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I love it! Stellar.

I would like to create a comparable base/root flair with some small trident seedlings, 2-6 years old roughly. Next spring I plan on putting them through a tile; how long would you think it would take if they were actually ground grown? Maybe five years? Less? More?

Or would there be something better to use than a tile?

EDIT: wow I did not see that it is 11 inches! I would aim for closer to 6-8 than eleven!
 

Brian Van Fleet

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JoeR

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Maybe more! This one is now 8 years old and around 7" at the soil, and is just developing its 3rd trunk section:
http://bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/the-2010-bonsainut-maple-project.3285/
However, because the roots were done right from the beginning, it can go into a shallow pot when the time comes.
Very nice trunk ya got there.

I may be able to gain girth a little quicker than you just due to the fact I wont be moving for at least the next three years. It seems you interupted the growth quite a few times but hopefully I wont have to do that.

Maybe I will aim for a shohin just so I have something presentable on my benches in the near future!

I actually ordered ten trident seedling and seven japanese maple seedlings to experiment with.

Three of the JM will be made a clump by putting them through a tile.

Four JM will be grown out, maybe ror or something who knows.

Seven or five Tridents will be a forest, havent decided. If I did five I wouldnt like it as much but I would have two extra tridents...

Three tridents will be a clump.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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I may be able to gain girth a little quicker than you just due to the fact I wont be moving for at least the next three years. It seems you interupted the growth quite a few times but hopefully I wont have to do that.
If you don't dig it up every couple years to get a decent nebari started, you'll be growing telephone poles. But you'll need to work that out for yourself.
 

JoeR

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If you don't dig it up every couple years to get a decent nebari started, you'll be growing telephone poles. But you'll need to work that out for yourself.
I understand that, I thought you had to move it into a three gallon for a few seasons? Not only was it a smaller container but it was also a new enviornment it had to adjust to.
 
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