Latest you’d chop a trident in spring?

SeanS

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What’s the latest you’d repot (with extensive root work) and chop a trident in spring? Can it be done after bud break, and if so how long after?

Let’s say you have a trident that’s about 3-4 day’s after bud break, leaves have just emerged but are still soft and about a week away from being fully opened.
 

MichaelS

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I have many tridents I haven't got around to yet. It's always a mad rush this time of year trying to keep up with everything. They are all in leaf. About a week now. I will be chopping them all back in the next few days. Roots too.
If the tree is old a weak I would not do it though.
 

SeanS

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I have many tridents I haven't got around to yet. It's always a mad rush this time of year trying to keep up with everything. They are all in leaf. About a week now. I will be chopping them all back in the next few days. Roots too.
If the tree is old a weak I would not do it though.
Thank you @MichaelS, exactly what I needed to hear. I’m about to go pick the tree up from the nursery now, I paid earlier but couldn’t bring it home at the time.

I’m going to have to chop it in the nursery car park! It won’t fit in my Audi.

There’s a perfectly placed bud/branchlet that’s leafed out on the trunk, I’ll be chopping straight across just above it. Once home I’ll clean up the chop and seal, root prune and plant over a terracotta dish in a raised grow bed.

Wish me luck!
 

SeanS

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The smaller the branch, the higher the cut should be.
Allow it time to take hold or or might die back to and beyond it.

Sorce
Too late, the cut has been made :oops:
Let us pray 🙏

(Has anyone figured out how to photograph a tree and actually have taper show up in the pic??? It’s not that taperless in real life!)

3B149185-F6D5-4AF3-9261-64EBBCD99904.jpeg
 

sorce

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Has anyone figured out how to photograph a tree and actually have taper show up in the pic??? It’s not that taperless in real life!)

Top down pics auto make it go away.

Sorce
 

YAN

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A ground layering at the widest possible flare would be nice when tree is healthy enough to take it.
I wish i could grow maples in my climate but impossible.
Maybe when i move to Montréal
 

hinmo24t

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usually you leave an inch or two during a hardcut because itll die back sometimes and take out what you intended as a leader. that looks like a close cut
 

SeanS

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usually you leave an inch or two during a hardcut because itll die back sometimes and take out what you intended as a leader. that looks like a close cut
I had read it was ok to cut closer if there was a bud as it won’t die back past the bud. So I made the cut close.

The deed is done so let’s see what happens
 

hinmo24t

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I had read it was ok to cut closer if there was a bud as it won’t die back past the bud. So I made the cut close.

The deed is done so let’s see what happens
i saw in other pic now the cut seems adequate, good luck. i love tridents
 

Shibui

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Sealing the wound soon after cutting seems to reduce the chance of dieback taking the buds.
Trident should respond strongly to a cut at this time of year.
Some of mine drop all the new leaves after extensive root pruning after the leaves are open but they usually sprout new buds a week or 2 later.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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To the original question, the latest I'd chop a Trident would be 4 weeks after the summer solstice. Probably the earliest I would chop would be a week before the summer solstice, which is late spring, to 4 weeks after the summer solstice or early-middle summer. That is the window of time I would follow for most major prune backs ("chops")
 

Shibui

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Down here I do most of my hard pruning of tridents in winter - several hundred every year. Any time after leaf drop seems to be fine. I try to avoid pruning maples later in spring but when done in conjunction with root pruning spring pruning also seems to be OK. I'm also quite happy to do any hard pruning on tridents all through summer but that is a little more difficult when they are covered in leaves. They seem to cope with the pruning just fine though. In other words, I can prune trident maples all year round here and so should @SeanS in South Africa. I don't have any experience with colder climates and would not presume to tell growers from northern areas what to do when.
 
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