Some trident seedling

Drew · Feb 11, 2021

did you chop the tops off any or just the roots?

misfit11 · Feb 11, 2021

I'm curious why you didn't chop them lower. They all have long straight sections before the cuts. What was your thinking on this?

misfit11 · Feb 11, 2021

Drew said:
did you chop the tops off any or just the roots?

Same. Did you reduce these before putting them back in the ground?

Dav4 · Feb 11, 2021

misfit11 said:
I'm curious why you didn't chop them lower. They all have long straight sections before the cuts. What was your thinking on this?

I cut the trunks back like that mainly to be able to easily lift and work the roots. They will get chopped lower as they break dormancy.

Dav4 · Feb 11, 2021

This is one I worked this past weekend…

Dav4 · Mar 11, 2021

A few quick and dirty repots on a few of these route over rock tridents. May actually get into a real part next year.

Dav4 · Mar 22, 2021

The window for repotting my maples is rapidly closing so I had to get to it. Several showed enough promise to move from turface and nursery cans to akadama and stoneware pots. This first one went back into a smaller nursery can.

Dav4 · Mar 22, 2021

This first one here has lots of upside. I left the right branch to help heal the chop but will remove it later.

BonsaiDTLA · Mar 22, 2021

Do you ship to CA? I'll take them all.

all jokes aside - really nice work, love following your progress!

MrWunderful · Mar 22, 2021

Love how ruthless you were with the reduction

A lot of folks don’t got the guts!

Adair M · Mar 22, 2021

MrWunderful said:
Love how ruthless you were with the reduction
A lot of folks don’t got the guts!

Dave’s a Vet. He’s used to guts.

Shibui · Mar 22, 2021

Dav4 said:
This first one here has lots of upside. I left the right branch to help heal the chop but will remove it later.

Will be interested to see how this works. Has never produced good results here.

Roots on these look good. Enough wildness to be interesting while still having good nebari characteristics.

Also some great potential root over rock projects. Some roots seem a little untamed. I have found that roots that cross can cause problems longer term. As the ones underneath thicken they usually raise the others away from the rock making undesirable spaces between rock and roots. Roots seem to take longer to heal than cuts to branches and trunks so pruning early seems to be better.

Great progressions on all these for others to learn from.
Hard pruning appears to be the best way to develop trident trunks with character and taper necessary for good bonsai. I would probably have pruned some of the roots even harder than you have. Roots growing down have little value for bonsai. Lateral roots will add to trunk flare. Did I see some mention of root taper and ramification in this thread? - also best promoted by pruning. IMHO good root pruning can be even more effective than the boards so much in vogue now and these trees are well on the way.

Dav4 · Mar 22, 2021

Shibui said:
Will be interested to see how this works. Has never produced good results here.

Roots on these look good. Enough wildness to be interesting while still having good nebari characteristics.

Also some great potential root over rock projects. Some roots seem a little untamed. I have found that roots that cross can cause problems longer term. As the ones underneath thicken they usually raise the others away from the rock making undesirable spaces between rock and roots. Roots seem to take longer to heal than cuts to branches and trunks so pruning early seems to be better.

Great progressions on all these for others to learn from.
Hard pruning appears to be the best way to develop trident trunks with character and taper necessary for good bonsai. I would probably have pruned some of the roots even harder than you have. Roots growing down have little value for bonsai. Lateral roots will add to trunk flare. Did I see some mention of root taper and ramification in this thread? - also best promoted by pruning. IMHO good root pruning can be even more effective than the boards so much in vogue now and these trees are well on the way.

I'm having fun with these and enjoy the process immensely. I'm not expecting masterpieces but certainly hope to end up with some nice trees to keep or eventually sell. Fwiw, I've learned the hard way that both the trunk and the roots need to be cut back very hard to get good results. I'll take a closer look at the root over rocks. I'd love to get any crossing roots to eventually bind together... perhaps wounding them and forcing them together for a time will do it. Thanks for the input, Shibui.

WNC Bonsai · Mar 23, 2021

So @Dav4 just how much shade are these in? My back yard looks about as shady as yours except for the small patch of sun most of my trees are in but I need to get my tridents in the ground for a few years and that means the woodlot in the back 40. Shade back there ranges from dense under the conifers to dappled sun under the tulip poplars and maples. I am not really looking for explosive growth as these are being grown for forests and one 5 tree clump.

Dav4 · Mar 23, 2021

Cofga said:
So @Dav4 just how much shade are these in? My back yard looks about as shady as yours except for the small patch of sun most of my trees are in but I need to get my tridents in the ground for a few years and that means the woodlot in the back 40. Shade back there ranges from dense under the conifers to dappled sun under the tulip poplars and maples. I am not really looking for explosive growth as these are being grown for forests and one 5 tree clump.

Depending on where the pot sits, my back yard offers anywhere from 3 to 7 hours of mid day to afternoon sun. My pines and junipers get dibs, but tridents really prefer full sun, too, so I give them as much as I can.