JBP_85
Yamadori
Hello Everyone,
I’ve been a long time lurker of this forum and am excited to be in a position to finally join the discussion. I’ve been interested in this hobby for some time but have held off on acquiring trees until I was in a position to be able to responsibly participate and dedicate time to it. After much reading I decided to start out with Trident Maples. I made this decision based on reading that they are resilient trees and a good starting point for beginners.
Yesterday my first two trees arrived in the mail. I acquired them from Matt Ouwinga at Kaede Bonsai. I made this decision based on a recommendation I saw on this forum and because the nursery is just up the road in Maryland and the climate is generally the same. They arrived extremely well packaged and seem to be in great shape.
I have looked at a lot of progression photos of Tridents and have a desire to do a Root over rock with one tree and a slanting style with the other. With this said I have seen a lot of postings on how to proceed and as with all things there seems to be a number of ways to go about this. I do have some general questions I’m hoping some experienced Trident wranglers will be able to assist with.
1) I’ve read that mid winter is a good time to repot Tridents. The average temp this week is around 50f. With nighttime temps dropping into the mid 20s. The trees are currently in 2” pots and I currently have them in my unheated garage. Is it safe to move them into larger 1 gallon pots at this time or should I let them be for now and wait it out through winter and repot in March before Spring returns?
2) I’ve seen a lot of different methods for starting root over rock maples on this forum and on YouTube. I’d be interested to hear what method has worked best for others and get an opinion on if this is something I should be doing right now with these young trees?
3) If repotting at this point is doable what soil type should i be looking at? Unfortunately, ground planting isn’t an option for me. Should I be using a bonsai soil at this phase of development or should I be using a regular potting soil (I’ve seen both used in my research). My inclination is to use a boon mix of bonsai soil but I’d like to hear from others on this.
4) What is the best way to achieve the slanting growth style? Is this achieved best through wiring the tree or should I just pot the tree at the desired angle when I repot?
I’m attaching a photo of the trees for reference and labeled them as trees A and B. Tree A appears to be slightly thicker than B and I was planning on choosing it for the root over rock style and use tree B for the slanting style. I’d be interested to get your thoughts and opinion on the trees.
My apologies for the lengthy post but I want to make the best decisions for these trees. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Cheers,
-J
I’ve been a long time lurker of this forum and am excited to be in a position to finally join the discussion. I’ve been interested in this hobby for some time but have held off on acquiring trees until I was in a position to be able to responsibly participate and dedicate time to it. After much reading I decided to start out with Trident Maples. I made this decision based on reading that they are resilient trees and a good starting point for beginners.
Yesterday my first two trees arrived in the mail. I acquired them from Matt Ouwinga at Kaede Bonsai. I made this decision based on a recommendation I saw on this forum and because the nursery is just up the road in Maryland and the climate is generally the same. They arrived extremely well packaged and seem to be in great shape.
I have looked at a lot of progression photos of Tridents and have a desire to do a Root over rock with one tree and a slanting style with the other. With this said I have seen a lot of postings on how to proceed and as with all things there seems to be a number of ways to go about this. I do have some general questions I’m hoping some experienced Trident wranglers will be able to assist with.
1) I’ve read that mid winter is a good time to repot Tridents. The average temp this week is around 50f. With nighttime temps dropping into the mid 20s. The trees are currently in 2” pots and I currently have them in my unheated garage. Is it safe to move them into larger 1 gallon pots at this time or should I let them be for now and wait it out through winter and repot in March before Spring returns?
2) I’ve seen a lot of different methods for starting root over rock maples on this forum and on YouTube. I’d be interested to hear what method has worked best for others and get an opinion on if this is something I should be doing right now with these young trees?
3) If repotting at this point is doable what soil type should i be looking at? Unfortunately, ground planting isn’t an option for me. Should I be using a bonsai soil at this phase of development or should I be using a regular potting soil (I’ve seen both used in my research). My inclination is to use a boon mix of bonsai soil but I’d like to hear from others on this.
4) What is the best way to achieve the slanting growth style? Is this achieved best through wiring the tree or should I just pot the tree at the desired angle when I repot?
I’m attaching a photo of the trees for reference and labeled them as trees A and B. Tree A appears to be slightly thicker than B and I was planning on choosing it for the root over rock style and use tree B for the slanting style. I’d be interested to get your thoughts and opinion on the trees.
My apologies for the lengthy post but I want to make the best decisions for these trees. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Cheers,
-J