Thread grafting a new leader on my trident maple

[davetree]

Here is a nice little trident maple that needs a new leader. Rather than chop and hope, I did the sure thing and drilled a hole exactly where I want the new leader to start. I made sure that the bud was very close to the hole. I used a little copper wire to hold the graft in place. Here are the front and back pics and a close up of the graft. Everything above the graft was cut back to allow the new leader to dominate. There will only be three branches below the graft, the rest of the tree will be built from the graft. It shouldn't take too long to make a pretty nice tree from this.

 

[Dav4]

Nice...one step back to take 3 steps forward. Great base on this one and worth the extra effort.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Great decision...that's a nice tree and will be a phenomenal bonsai with a lower apex. Best of success with it.

 

[Poink88]

I can see why. Good decision!

 

[davetree]

Thanks for your replies. Many of my trees were cut back hard this year. It might be tough to do but the end results are worth it.

 

[Paulsur]

No guts, no glory! I agree with everyone else great base, has the makings of a very nice tree.

 

[SantaFeBonsai]

Update on this trident???