To chop, or not to chop

It's Kev

Omono
Messages
1,161
Reaction score
1,629
Location
GuangZhou 广州
USDA Zone
10
It’s time again for stupid questions with your favourite newb. Here’s my little trident, I want to make it appear fatter, so do I chop at 1, or 2? For those who keep up with my situation, I haven’t got a field or yard to let it grow free.

Or do I just stick to what I’ve got and let a thousand years of slow growth do it’s thing?
98F76BE9-FB13-4381-A836-3B34778CC704.jpeg
 

james

Shohin
Messages
290
Reaction score
809
Location
Sioux Falls, SD
USDA Zone
4
You are asking a long term question, and for that answer, one needs to know what height you ultimately want tree, and how fast do you want to get there?

If it was mine, first order of business are roots, nebari. If you are replanting into ground, good time to work roots, get good radial spread, etc then plant in ground. Next is trunk, and the more growth you have above trunk base, the faster/fatter base becomes. Ideally, you want a single leader, which may grow 5+ feet in a season. So I might argue, no chop now, let a leader run from what you have.

Lastly is the lowest branch on left, I see this as a potential for your next trunk segment, with chop at 1 several years from now, when base approaches desired final thickness. Again, if it was mine, I may lay some wire on the lowest left branch and give it some wiggle now while it is flexible, take it off before it scars.

I will send you a pic of something similar I have going on a trident today, a couple years further in development.
 

It's Kev

Omono
Messages
1,161
Reaction score
1,629
Location
GuangZhou 广州
USDA Zone
10
@james
I’ve got a good root spread below the surface, should probably lift that out sometime. And again,I haven’t got a lot of space, I’ve got this pot which is the size of 2 bricks. My surroundings and lifestyle would suggest that I should be a shohin guy (no space for field growth and I move around a lot) so final height is close to where I’m at now.
 

JudyB

Queen of the Nuts
Messages
13,751
Reaction score
23,250
Location
South East of Cols. OH
USDA Zone
6a
So maybe try getting a bigger pot, or are you saying you don't have space for a bigger pot? If your final height is how tall it is now, you'll most likely want to chop at 1.
 

james

Shohin
Messages
290
Reaction score
809
Location
Sioux Falls, SD
USDA Zone
4
B712D0E7-1604-45CD-949E-E2EF98BEC6FB.jpegHere is a trident I chopped a month ago. Intended to be small tree. Base 4” or so. Chop 2” across, about 5” from soil. Chop at angle to accentuate taper and movement. Next trunk segment wired up, which I will let run this year. Helps heal chop. Repeat as needed.

Key: for fastest development, chop only when base near ultimate thickness. Jump start next trunk segment so you have something interesting to chop to
 

It's Kev

Omono
Messages
1,161
Reaction score
1,629
Location
GuangZhou 广州
USDA Zone
10
So, I lifted my tree just a tad. Tied it to a piece of a tile to flatten the root spread. Then I made my cut at my higher mark and figured I could experiment with thread grafts with the shoots off my cutting. The branches on the left are originals, the ones on the right are my grafting efforts. The top branch will probably be like a new leader, there’s a nice bud on the right, but the one on the left is bigger. Should I rub it off or nah?
51EB69A0-FB49-4C24-830D-B0A6CCCD94A8.jpeg
 
Top Bottom