Drastic Trident overhaul!

[Eric Group]

So I have this Trident Maple I was lucky enough to buy at a very fair price last year from a friend of mine- and I hope Ken doesn't want to kill me now after seeing what I did to it!

This poor thing has had a few issues since purchase- basically it became a feeding post for the squirrels in my yard who seemed to think they should put their own stylings on my trees! (I mentioned this recently in a thread about the squirrels attacking my Maples..) They knawed off whole branches, chewed out sections of bark and pretty much made my decision for me on where I needed to chop this guy. Prior to the rodent assault, my only "problem" with this tree was that it had almost no movement low in the trunk. It was over 1 inch thick there and thus beyond my abilities to bend so the only real way to get some movement is to chop and change the direction then re-grow the top. Fortunately Ken is a much more accomplished enthusiast than myself and he has been planting his trees on boards for years now, so it spent the past two years in a smart pot with a plank underneath it growing out! Here are some pics before I got real nasty on this guy:

 

[JudyB]

waiting to see what you do to it!

Looks like the squirrel may have done you a favor for the development of this tree... Now you can really move it along with a new lower part. Are you going to put it in a trainer, or the ground? If you have to remake the trunk I would think you'd want to do one of those, not a pot.

 

[Eric Group]

As you can see in the pics above, the roots were growing well around the board, and had filled up the pot nicely! They were actually growing into the "cloth" that the pot is made out of, which made it kind of hard to remove... I can tell at first glance the tree is healthy and vigorous- which I already knew- and I was able to remove the soil and prune the roots easily. I only took a few more picks as it was hot and sunny today so once I got the soil off the roots I was trying to keep the time to a minimum... I cut the trunk a couple inches above the ground where I want to get some movement. This guy had only just started to show some bud swell, so I think this was the perfect time. I washed out the rest of the soil, and as you can see in the close up, there is a spot on the side of the root spread where no roots are growing. To attempt to correct this, I made a few little tiny cuts in the bark, rubbed some rooting hormone and stuck a bit of sphagnum moss in the indenture. Then, I buried the whole root ball- still on the same board as the wood was not rotted at ALL, and I saw no need to further stress the tree by removing the board, affixing a new one... I put it right in the "Maple corner" of my garden next to two Japanese Maples I have in the ground currently.

The last pic shows a little nub of trunk visible above the ground and landscape cloth- the two pots beside it are all the CUTTINGS I made from what was removed! Waste not want not, right? I am horribly addicted to propagation and just cannot stomach tossing out some good looking branches when I chop a tree like this- besides Ken did a fantastic job of working on this tree and I am trying to do a large cutting with the whole top! It always had nice movement up there, so I figure if I can root that, I will be way ahead of the game and might wind up with two nice trees in a couple years (and a bunch of little ones...).

My new thing with cuttings this season is to go for larger and larger branches! I have had success with small whips all the way up to 1/4-1/2 inch cuttings, and have read that larger ones will even take some times. Some say they are EASIER actually because of the larger amount of hormone stored in the larger branches- it produces roots more consistently. This big Maple chunk I am trying is about an inch thick below the soil, and I recently grabbed a big chunk of a Crepe Myrtle from my neighbor's yard after he pruned his trees- I am trying to root a 3+ inch thick branch from that! I will see how it goes, never tried any that large before. My rooting medium is mostly pearlite with a little turface to add some weight to the mix and a tiny bit of soil just so there are nutrients present when the tree grows some roots! I have had success with regular old potting soil, pumice, turface, perlite and even just regular old garden compost when making cuttings in the past- in my experience it isn't what you plant them in that matters, but more how you water and care for them... Thanks for reading my long winded little post here and please let me know what you think!

 

[Eric Group]

waiting to see what you do to it!

Looks like the squirrel may have done you a favor for the development of this tree... Now you can really move it along with a new lower part. Are you going to put it in a trainer, or the ground? If you have to remake the trunk I would think you'd want to do one of those, not a pot.

Yes, as you can see I went for the ground... I have done plenty of ground growing with Maples in the past, and once they get going, they grow really fast! I will probably let it grow for a year or two, then hack it back again... Leave it in the ground for a while before I try to work on branches and stuff like that. Right now, I am just trying to get some movement and taper in the lower trunk.

 

[Eric Group]

Well this was a fun little project for the morning... I was off today and finally had the time to get it done without kids and my family around... I was hoping to get more stuff done today, but have to go with my Fiancée this afternoon to get our wedding license and have it notarized... I suppose you could say I am "getting married" today... Sounds weird... We aren't really doing some big wedding and stuff. We have lived together for a couple years, have kids... It is like we are married already. We opted to just have a party and then spend our money on a honeymoon instead of a wedding!

I can remember when I repotted/ planted this little guy without making notes/ tags though I think and can remember every year on our anniversary that it will be another year in the development of my little Maple... Maybe I should call it the wedding Maple, or anniversary Maple... Something sappy like that. I doubt she will find it terribly romantic. My Bonsai obsession is more of something she puts up with than something she shares my passion for! LOL

 

[Poink88]

CONGRATS with the wedding!!!

 

[small trees]

For the larger cutting, you probably should have done a layer if you wanted to keep it. A lot of times the larger pieces like that will leaf out from their stored energy reserves, but then die before they root. However, a layer would have set you back a growing season on the stump.

 

[Eric Group]

For the larger cutting, you probably should have done a layer if you wanted to keep it. A lot of times the larger pieces like that will leaf out from their stored energy reserves, but then die before they root. However, a layer would have set you back a growing season on the stump.

Yeah and it was damaged, so I wasn't sure if the top was going to grow well anyway, and to go through an extra year of waiting to try to layer a section with all those bite marks didn't make much sense to me... I thought about doing a layer though.

 

[JudyB]

Congrats to you and your new wife. Regardless of how you've been living, even with a family, it's still a big step and a huge commitment, if you take it seriously. So happy new life and new family and a new and exciting start. For you and the anniversary tree!

 

[Eric Group]

Congrats to you and your new wife. Regardless of how you've been living, even with a family, it's still a big step and a huge commitment, if you take it seriously. So happy new life and new family and a new and exciting start. For you and the anniversary tree!

Thanks Judy! I feel like I diminish the importance a little when say we just went and filed papers at the courthouse instead of doing a traditional wedding , or we already felt like we were married... It is true, we did feel that way, but it is still a big step for me!

The tree won't look like much for a few years, but I think it will get where I want it to go eventually. I suspect this is a decade or longer project before I have much that looks like a Bonsai, but I have trees in all different stages of development (except the refinement stage I guess) so I should be able to keep my hands off it for a couple years... Just hoping I get some buds to Pop in the right spots, close to the cut.