Good Trident Material?

[Scrogdor]

Curious what people think about this beast of a Trident Maple. Looks like it would be a decent tree to build something similar to the below tree? Or split trunk or something. Price point is 300$. Trunk is 3 or 4 “ thick.

Hackberry, Celtis africana, dug up and potted 2016

I was lucky enough to be given a bunch of small Celtis in nursery bags and decided to make a few into bonsai. I cut the nursery bags and put them around the taproot with a pipe clamp to force roots to the sides. This was in 2008. I don't have pics of the individual trees, but did basically the...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[BobbyLane]

looks substantial, I would be tempted, but not if you want to build a bonsai, it can be a naturistic piece. theres a few similar stumps on here, even Maches massive E Hornbeam has some similarities. again the base is important, for these types of brutish trees

 

[Scrogdor]

looks substantial, I would be tempted, but not if you want to build a bonsai, it can be a naturistic piece. theres a few similar stumps on here, even Maches massive E Hornbeam has some similarities. again the base is important, for these types of brutish trees

Yeah I’d be looking to build something like that.

 

[BobbyLane]

you could nibble away at it in stages until it starts to look like a tree you like, i did that with this

Hornbeam material-The Four Brothers

European Hornbeam from hedging nursery stock, picked up march 2018 reducing at the nursery to make it more manageable 20180320_121723 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr 20180320_122923 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr 20180320_124031 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr A lot going on 20180320_160303 by Bobby Lane, on...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Scrogdor]

you could nibble away at it in stages until it starts to look like a tree you like, i did that with this

Hornbeam material-The Four Brothers

European Hornbeam from hedging nursery stock, picked up march 2018 reducing at the nursery to make it more manageable 20180320_121723 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr 20180320_122923 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr 20180320_124031 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr A lot going on 20180320_160303 by Bobby Lane, on...

www.bonsainut.com

Incredible!

Think I would shorten the tall trunk off this trident by quite a bit or air layer it off. Looks like there are tons of nodes for back budding as well

 

[Shibui]

$300 is about what I would put on a 3" thick trident trunk. More if it had better taper and/or good nebari.
This one is way too tall with no taper but has plenty of branches and twigs to chop back to. 3 thick low branches/trunks means either multi trunk or some big chops that are likely to take many years to heal. Might be possible to use them all but from the angles shown doesn't look promising for good triple trunk.
Just be aware that even starting with a thicker trunk you'll still be looking at 5-10 years refinement to get a bonsai worth showing off.

 

[BobbyLane]

The drastic option is to chop low to a stump, this is piglet in the beginning..again good nebari is important for the type of material

 

[GGB]

I look at big thick taperless trees like this….
It definitely needs to be cut back to build some kind of taper. And at that size it will take a second to regrow a new section. It’s trident so it will grow fast but, at what point is it easier to just buy one half the girth and grow out a nicer tree in the time you’d spend growing a new trunk on a 4” base.
The other option is using what the tree gives you and building the branches from what’s there. A naturalistic type oak style? Not my arena to advise in but some here are good at it

 

[Scrogdor]

Crude drawing but this was the general idea I had. Definitely a more naturalistic piece like in piglet or the Hornbeam above. A project for sure.

The drastic option is to chop low to a stump, this is piglet in the beginning..again good nebari is important for the type of material

 

[BobbyLane]

Crude drawing but this was the general idea I had. Definitely a more naturalistic piece like in piglet or the Hornbeam above. A project for sure.

with v cuts yes. did you take these pics yourself?

 

[Scrogdor]

with v cuts yes. did you take these pics yourself?

I did not.

 

[Scrogdor]

Couple extra photos of the nebari.