Advice and Opinions on New Trident Maple Purchase

It is not a good thing to focus on hight. Develop and find out where they tree takes you.

Thank you Dirk, I will put the thought of a final height out of my mind, and assume it will probably end up between 12"-18".

I am not going to do any further work on this tree until Spring 2017. Just going to enjoy watching it continue to pass through the seasonal changes normally (without the artificial means I had to employ growing in Florida). Then treat it as my special project as far as winter storage is concerned so the roots don't get below 25F (I guess).

My Formosan trident maple has a few buds swelling and one leaf pair that just opened, despite several recent mornings of frost and one morning down to 28F (this morning was around 32F). I am now even more leaning toward keeping it outside when it is above 30F through November, then bringing it inside with my two tropicals and keeping it 50F - 65F for the rest of the winter.

Miker
Peeped this on that other thread.

Nice man!

Sorce

Thank you Sorce! I am so eager to get to work on it but I know that I can't do a thing for at least two months.

I was going to repot it for sure this spring because I was afraid the akadama would have broken down for sure in just one season, since it was a shohin maple in Fl and needed a lot of watering and the soil was exposed to extreme heat and now freezing and thawing. I now think I am just going to cadefully pour of the top half inch or so when I take it out of its winter shelter and add an inch of fresh akadama to the surface. I don't want to traumatize it with another repot the very next season if I don't have to.

The training going forward will follow exactly what has been suggested and accepted in more recent posts within this thread. This is a longterm project for sure, but one that should end up being well worth it.

In a moment of impatience recently, I actually toyed with the idea of bringing it inside under lights or in a bright south facing window sometime in February to get a headstart but this would be short-sighted and sloppy horticulture and I will resist the urge to do so.

I could actually see doing this with a tree or two every year as long as the tree had met its chill requirements, could be given adequate light until placed outside after the threat of freezing.

A photo of the trees yesterday afternoon after during a brief snow squall. My trident will sit right there until at least March 1st and the Torreya taxifolia on the left has not minded the PA winter.

Despite my ill-advised decision (not that it didn't work this time, but having to keep it as a full-sun house plant while it is freezing cold outside is a hassle) to bring my trident out of dormancy early, it is doing reasonably well and should be able to stay outside full-time with a month.

I did not repot this tree, but rather, added some akadama to the surface to encourage surface roots around the periphery of the current base. Though I would not give it a "head start" again, I hope the extended growing season allows for enhanced development this growing season.

Bombs away...

miker said:

, it is doing reasonably well and should be able to stay outside full-time with a month

Click to expand...

Looking a little droopy.
If it has to keep trying to stay alive inside for that long waking it up early to get a head start may set it back some.
Maybe quite a bit actually.
Plus it looks like it's already trying to stretch for the light. Making for some long internodes.

M. Frary said:

Looking a little droopy.

Click to expand...

That's what I said about MO Grant's and Mach Feez said they all look like that!

Never noticed before this year.

Sorce

Yeah, I think on many maples, before the new leaves and petioles develop sufficient tissue (and perhaps turgor) to hold them erect, they hang and droop a bit. Okay nobody laugh!!

I agree that my attemped head start could have actually caused a set-back in the longer run, however, most days, the tree has been outside in full-sun for 2-3 hours on average, and then I bring it in. On the cold days, I have kept it in a second story south facing window that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight to the window sill.

Finally, those two growths growing uninhibited are escapes, one to thicken the eventual apex and the other the current (to be removed) apex.

I am reminded of a TV comercial many years ago, I do not now remember the product but the curx of it all led to thunder and lightening and a voice from heaven saying; Oh it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Vance Wood said:

I am reminded of a TV comercial many years ago, I do not now remember the product but the curx of it all led to thunder and lightening and a voice from heaven saying; Oh it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Click to expand...

In another thread, I warned the OP that deliberately waking this tree up early would be counter productive instead of beneficial... .

Dav4 said:

In another thread, I warned the OP that deliberately waking this tree up early would be counter productive instead of beneficial... .

Click to expand...

How scary is it that I remember this commercial. And it doesn't seem that long ago!

Bonsai Nut said:

How scary is it that I remember this commercial. And it doesn't seem that long ago!

Click to expand...

Same here

miker said:

Yeah, I think on many maples, before the new leaves and petioles develop sufficient tissue (and perhaps turgor) to hold them erect, they hang and droop a bit. Okay nobody laugh!!

I agree that my attemped head start could have actually caused a set-back in the longer run, however, most days, the tree has been outside in full-sun for 2-3 hours on average, and then I bring it in. On the cold days, I have kept it in a second story south facing window that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight to the window sill.

Finally, those two growths growing uninhibited are escapes, one to thicken the eventual apex and the other the current (to be removed) apex.

Click to expand...

They have a pill for that.

Since my last post, I did the final lowering chop on this trident maple about 6 weeks ago. I really had to carve the tree trunk leading up to the new leader almost to a point to hopefully help ensure that I don't get reverse taper in the future. Due to such little supporting trunk being left, the over foot long new leader blew sideways in the wind about a week later(as I feared it would). Since the damage appeared minimal, I lopped 2/3 of the length of the new leader, so it wouldn't be so top heavy and anchored it in place with thick copper wire.

Another couple weeks went by without any problems, then one day I noticed all the foliage above the cut was wilting and it was obvious the tree had decided to abort the new leader. I saved the new leader by defoliating the rest of the tree, removing buds emerging on the trunk just below the new leader and placing the tree in a humid, mostly shaded spot. The tree spent about a week in the tree ICU and the wilted leaves perked up and new growth is now being put out throughout the whole tree.

The first photo is of the tree right after the chop was done right before a vaneer of cut paste was applied (about 6 weeks ago). The second is a photo of the tree taken today.

That trident maple in the black air pot to the right of the main trident in the second photo is a rough bark trident I just plan to grow out for a year or two before making any further plans.

Miker- I'm not sure about that cut on the apex. I'm not sure that will ever heal properly. You might consider thread grafting a new apex on and recutting the wound like this



If you decide to go this way, and for right now, all you have to do is let a strong shoot grow. Don't defoliate or prune it. Just wire it into position before it lignifies so that you'll have something to graft next winter.

Scott

Scott, thank you so much for the help and advice. I think since I managed to get the apex to survive, I am going to give it a season (or maybe a full year) to see how healing progresses. If it at a certain point appears like it is going to leave a nasty, ugly scar, I will start, yet again, and follow your advice.

I have had very poor luck with thread grafting in the past (never tried an approach graft) but this was only on a Korean hornbeam which I think is a much different "animal" than trying the same on a trident.

I chopped how I did because I had figured that healing will begin at the edge of the wound all the way around and eventually fill in and meet in the middle, for a nice cleanly healed wound(even if it takes 2-3 years.

Also, I have seen ao many decent to good tridents that had obviously been chopped straight across and ended up with awkward transitions between segments, that do not look natural or aesthetically pleasing in a tree/bonsai.

So basically, what I did was a very risky chop, but I am hoping the gamble pays off. Only time will tell on this one.