Trident Maple Growing Crazy - Can I cut it back?

Zako51

Yamadori
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Good Afternoon Everyone,

I bought a (1) foot little trident maple pre-bonsai and planted it in the ground during this past January. It is now fully leafed and about 5-6 feet tall. I wanted to plant it in the ground for a couple years to let the trunk get bigger.

It is starting to bow over and I was wondering, can I cut it back right now?

If so, how much can I cut it back?

Here is a picture of what it looks like now.

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Thanks.
 

Tieball

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If you really do want a thicker diameter trunk just let it grow all that it wants....as tall as it wants to grow. Wild growth....then with a thick trunk you're happy with....then chop. That's one way.

Another way is to chop and grow. This path can slow down trunk thickening but you do get some interesting trunk movement that develops and the smaller size chops may cover over faster along the way. But the overall thickening will be somewhat slower.

That's my belief and experience.

I can't see what thickness of the trunk you're dealing with right now. Some others here can contribute more about the chopping question....working best for your tree....Amur Maple.

Some of my ground growing trees are 8' to 10' tall now. Lots of branching......trunks are 3.5" to 5". The trees I grow in the ground are growing on top of floor size tiles.
 

Bonsai Nut

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If you want thicker let it grow, grow, grow. Don't do anything to hold back the growth - particularly by cutting back the roots or cutting back the outer growth.

Note with the roots - there is a difference between restraining the roots so they don't spread all over, versus cutting them back. You want to avoid cutting the tips of the roots off.

Why? The science behind this is that the apical meristems (the end tips) of all the branches and all the roots are where auxin is created in a tree. The branches are more important in this respect than the roots - they generate a lot more (10x or so) auxin than the roots. If you trim off all the growing tips of a branch, you are basically shutting down auxin development in the tree, and the tree switches from extension and thickening to back-budding until it can throw another flush of new growth (and new tips). So if you want a thick trunk you need to let the tree grow, then cut it back, then let it grow. But the grow / cut cycle should be years of growth - not just a couple months.
 

Tieball

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If you want thicker let it grow, grow, grow. Don't do anything to hold back the growth - particularly by cutting back the roots or cutting back the outer growth.

Note with the roots - there is a difference between restraining the roots so they don't spread all over, versus cutting them back. You want to avoid cutting the tips of the roots off.

Why? The science behind this is that the apical meristems (the end tips) of all the branches and all the roots are where auxin is created in a tree. The branches are more important in this respect than the roots - they generate a lot more (10x or so) auxin than the roots. If you trim off all the growing tips of a branch, you are basically shutting down auxin development in the tree, and the tree switches from extension and thickening to back-budding until it can throw another flush of new growth (and new tips). So if you want a thick trunk you need to let the tree grow, then cut it back, then let it grow. But the grow / cut cycle should be years of growth - not just a couple months.
Explained very well.
 

RKatzin

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I got this Trident as a tube start, about the size of a pencil. It spent three full seasons growing in the garden and I dug it in its fourth season. It had gotten twelve to fifteen feet tall and it took quite a bit of hacking and wacking to get it back down to this, but that's how we roll. Grow 'em up and chop 'em down and then grow 'em up again.14978129586811343024789.jpgBad pic I know, but the trunk is about three inches spreading to six or seven.
 
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