Some trident seedling

[Dav4]

This has been a busy weekend for me trees in pots and in the ground are waking up and they all need work. This is one of several seedlings I planted out 3-4 years ago... it's in mostly shade so it doesn't grow as quickly as it could with more sun, but that's ok... from chop to root base it's about 7-8" tall. It was planted on a tile and there is a decent nebari forming. The top was chopped, heavy roots above the base were removed, the rest were cut back, and its back on the tile in the ground.

 

[Adair M]

View attachment 131812 View attachment 131813
This has been a busy weekend for me trees in pots and in the ground are waking up and they all need work. This is a seedling I planed out 3-4 years ago... it's in mostly shade so it doesn't grow as quickly as it could with more sun, but that's ok... from chop to root base it's about 7-8" tall. It was planted on a tile and there is a decent nebari forming. The top was chopped, heavy roots above the base were removed, the rest were cut back, and its back on the tile in the ground.

Chop lower.

 

[Dav4]

Chop lower.

No

 

[Dav4]

In all seriousness, this one is going to be in the ground for another 10 to 15 years or more... hoping for a base at least 8" across and a tree at least 2' tall.

 

[Dav4]

I worked another young trident today. This one got chopped a bit lower.

 

[leatherback]

I am a little confused. If you are gorowing this out for another 10 years, why did you just chop it?

 

[Dav4]

I am a little confused. If you are gorowing this out for another 10 years, why did you just chop it?

@Adair M told me to....

 

[Dav4]

I am a little confused. If you are gorowing this out for another 10 years, why did you just chop it?

Seriously, more frequent chops mean more movement and character with smaller, less obvious chop scars... at the expense of trunk size. It'll take longer to get to the size I want, but I'm having fun, so I don't care.

 

[leatherback]

OK. Trident is just one of thsoe that seal chops quite easily. So I would have though you first get the base to maybe half of the desired, and then start the frequent chopping.

 

[sorce]

@Adair M told me to....

He's trying to keep you from allowing room for a........D4DB.

Sorce

 

[Dav4]

So, the last trident pictured above was a victim of the exuberance of my dog hoard... uprooted and unnoticed before leading out. Luckily, I’ve got more in the works. This one is of the same vintage and has a 3 inch base below the soil. The main trunk was chopped yesterday and a new leader wired up. A year or 3 more in the ground and we should have a good shohin trunk and can start growing branches.

 

[Dav4]

Sooooooo...... my pointer struck again last November. He decided the little tree in the picture above needed to go because there was a fictitious chipmunk hiding under it... I came home from work to find this.... ugh!

Well, tridents are tough, resilient trees, so I cut the leader back, put it into a 3 gal nursery can with soil, cleaned up and covered the few remaining roots and proceeded to nurse it through the winter, moving it in and out of my garage as needed to keep it cool/cold without allowing it to freeze. Well, a few days ago, I it was beginning to grow... Yeah! Time to salvage this one!



I cut back the one large root that was too high above the root base


Applied a few rabbit chewed trident seedling root grafts

Proposed front...(fingers crossed)


Potted up and secured into a cut down 3 gal nursery can, ready for (hopefully) pointer free growing season!

 

[Dav4]

A few more got worked in the cold drizzle this morning. There’s a few zelcova cuttings mixed in there in the last photo.

 

[Dav4]

Working some four and five-year-old seedlings that have been in the ground for a few years. Anybody who can grow Tridents in their climate should… They are an absolute joy to work with.

 

[jmw_bonsai]

Thinking I need to grab a six pack of good craft and visit this spring for some tree talk!

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I spent the last couple days up here sieving pumice, etc. and repotting tridents, chinese quince, korean hornbeam, bald cypress, and American larch (yes they all survived their first summer here and made it through the winter) that have started to push buds. Every day I have to dig around in the wintering beds to see what is pushing buds next. I thnk my Japanese maples are next in the lineup. And now we have a cold front coming in over the weekend with temps back down in the 20s so I’ll be doing the two-step to keep the roots from freezing. Like the old Chinese curse says “may you live in interesting times”.

 

[Gary McCarthy]

When you plant the larger tridents in the ground on the tiles do you have much issue with the tree roots pushing the tree up? Is it better to somehow mount the tree onto the tile to prevent the lifting up?

 

[Dav4]

When you plant the larger tridents in the ground on the tiles do you have much issue with the tree roots pushing the tree up? Is it better to somehow mount the tree onto the tile to prevent the lifting up?

Nope, not really… You saw how flat the RuPaul’s were on those trees.

 

[Dav4]

Nope, not really… You saw how flat the RuPaul’s were on those trees.

Rupauls.... ?... it should be roots...

 

[LanceMac10]

Rupauls.... ?... it should be roots...

SUUUURRRRREEEEE...………………………….


I did see some dungarees in one photo, so we'll just figure your phone's spellcheck has an agenda!!
Some chunky Tridents!