Small trident defoliation.

[jkd2572]

This summer I aggressively defoliated this little trident twice. Once on June 1st and again on August 1st. The leaves have hardened off and I thought I would share the results. I plan to keep doing this to this one every year. The leaf size decreased dramatically. I did three years worth of ramifying in one summer. As you can see it also produced lots of interior budding. I always find it strange that there is not more discussion on this forum about this technique.

 

[Laputa]

Wow thats a beautiful tree! I just acquired a Trident myself. And, crap, you're in Plano! (I'm in Las Colinas, recently from New Orleans) Can you point me in the direction of your local sources, if any.. i.e. workshops, nurseries etc....

Thats awesome you have those dates for Texas climate AND that tree. You must have a very healthy plant to have done it twice in one year. I've read closer to once a year and skipping the next, but close to 3 growing season of ramification...ill take that any day! (or year)

Thanks very much for sharing!

 

[jkd2572]

And you get new looking leaves after the last ones have been sun scorched.

I'm going to my first Bonsai society of Dallas meeting in the morning. You should come. I have been a member for years, but could not make their monthly Saturday meeting due to other obligations. I am now free of those and going to start attending. They are 9:00-12:00 at north haven gardens the first Saturday of every month. Website here. http://nhg.com/. The bonsai society of Dallas is http://www.bonsaisocietyofdallas.com/. If you join you get a news letter every month telling you what's coming up. On september 15, a sunday, we are hosting Cathy Shaner as a guest artist. In October we are having the yearly club auction were you might pick up something on the cheap. It is a very resourceful group of people. The president is Sylvia Smith who is an accomplished artist that trained under boon and now teaches classes. I'm taking a pine class from her in November. http://bonsaismiths.net/. Nurseries here are not that great, but thankfully we have FedEx trucks that will bring material to your door.

 

[jkd2572]

I would not defoliate twice in one season any other tree other than a trident maple. They grow like weeds and are very resilient to all sorts of punishment. I watched a Video early this year that Bjorne made. He said at the nursary in Japan where he studied they would defoliate tridents multiple times a year. He said they would do this Dow multiple reasons. One was to get tight ramification, another was to get smaller leaves, and lastly to keep interior buds healthy so in the future you could cut back to them. After watching that I decided to try it this summer. I'm very happy with the results as they are what Bjorne said would happen. I'm thinking Im probably going to try three times next summer. The first time being in may. The longer the growing season one has the more times you can do it.

 

[bonsai barry]

If you were going to defoliate in anticipation of a show, how many weeks before the show would you do it?

 

[jkd2572]

From what I just went through 4 weeks would be good in my climate and trident maples. I would imagine this would need to be tested on type of tree and climate in your area. I'm sure it changes with different variables to the point of different trees of the same species. I actually did two tridents at the same time. They reacted differently. Both healthy just one took longer both times to put out new leaves, but individually they reacted the same like clockwork in time it took. One exactly one week behind the other one every time. So I would say if you are going to show a tree test it first.

 

[Eric Group]

The increased ramification and leaf reduction is great, but isn't this a technique that should be saved until you have a tree that is a little more... Mature? I don't mean to burst your bubble, and maybe this is the kind of trunk girth you are going for- if so then this post is not relevant to your situation obviously, but it is my understanding that defoliating will reduce the overall growth of the tree pretty significantly- which is fine/ great if the tree is well established, mature... And you are just working on keeping a shape tight, increasing ramification and reducing leaf size... But if you are still trying to grow a large mature tree, defoliation would be counter productive...

 

[Neli]

I just bought my second trident maple....not much experience with them, but tomorrow I will ask oyakata....now I just remembered that I want to go to a bonsai show in the morning...it will have to be after tomorrow when I come back.

 

[jkd2572]

The increased ramification and leaf reduction is great, but isn't this a technique that should be saved until you have a tree that is a little more... Mature? I don't mean to burst your bubble, and maybe this is the kind of trunk girth you are going for- if so then this post is not relevant to your situation obviously, but it is my understanding that defoliating will reduce the overall growth of the tree pretty significantly- which is fine/ great if the tree is well established, mature... And you are just working on keeping a shape tight, increasing ramification and reducing leaf size... But if you are still trying to grow a large mature tree, defoliation would be counter productive...

No this is the size I want to keep this tree. It's small with perfect taper of the trunk. I have one with a 8 inch base as well. Don't have room or a back for both. This is never going to be a show stopper. This sits in my grow out area that no one ever sees. I'm more wanting to learn the results of the process so when my huge trident is at the stage to do it I will have a good idea of the results. You see this was an experiment for me to learn first hand what the results would be. It's a way to accumulate experience instead of reading something somewhere and puking it back up on a forum like I have actually done it and know first hand what the outcome will be. In this instance now I would be pretty comfortable discussing this technique with first hand knowledge and not like a armchair quarter back. I wish I could "thank" myself for this post.