Trident Maple Material Arrived, Help requested

[BigBen]

Hi All,
Happy Sunday.
Sorry if these are dumb-ass questions, but I just want to do my best to keep 'em alive and hopefully have them flourish.

I received my Trident Maples safe and sound, from Matt. VERY NICE JOB MATT!
I've been searching and reading the forums and have gotten some great information, but I'm still not positive on what I should do next with respect to planting them.
Should I leave the two potted plants as-is for now, then re-pot them within a given time period?

Also, I'm guessing I should pot the un-potted bare-root trees ASAP?
What size pots (or grow boxes) should I pot them in, or should I pot them in the ground (I'm hesitant on the ground idea, due to the climate here)?
Should I use my 40% lava, 40% pumice, 20% pine bark soil, or use "typical" compost based soil with some added ingredients?

Then fertilize beginning just before Spring?


Once again, I truly appreciate everyone's help & guidance,
BigBen

 

[DeanoAZ]

Hi All,
Happy Sunday.
Sorry if these are dumb-ass questions, but I just want to do my best to keep 'em alive and hopefully have them flourish.

I received my Trident Maples safe and sound, from Matt. VERY NICE JOB MATT!
I've been searching and reading the forums and have gotten some great information, but I'm still not positive on what I should do next with respect to planting them.
Should I leave the two potted plants as-is for now, then re-pot them within a given time period?

Also, I'm guessing I should pot the un-potted bare-root trees ASAP?
What size pots (or grow boxes) should I pot them in, or should I pot them in the ground (I'm hesitant on the ground idea, due to the climate here)?
Should I use my 40% lava, 40% pumice, 20% pine bark soil, or use "typical" compost based soil with some added ingredients?

Then fertilize beginning just before Spring?


Once again, I truly appreciate everyone's help & guidance,
BigBen

I just got the same thing from Matt, except it was a Trident and a Chinese Elm. I had some of the same questions; I went ahead and repotted in my normal bonsai soil.

 

[vaibatron]

Hi All,
Happy Sunday.
Sorry if these are dumb-ass questions, but I just want to do my best to keep 'em alive and hopefully have them flourish.

I received my Trident Maples safe and sound, from Matt. VERY NICE JOB MATT!
I've been searching and reading the forums and have gotten some great information, but I'm still not positive on what I should do next with respect to planting them.
Should I leave the two potted plants as-is for now, then re-pot them within a given time period?

Also, I'm guessing I should pot the un-potted bare-root trees ASAP?
What size pots (or grow boxes) should I pot them in, or should I pot them in the ground (I'm hesitant on the ground idea, due to the climate here)?
Should I use my 40% lava, 40% pumice, 20% pine bark soil, or use "typical" compost based soil with some added ingredients?

Then fertilize beginning just before Spring?


Once again, I truly appreciate everyone's help & guidance,
BigBen

Those look like healthy starters! Considering you are in NY, the best thing you can do right now is slip pot them until spring. DO not bare root yet!!

In Spring, as bud break occurs you’re safe to bare root. Im not sure about you’re climate, but ground growing is the best way to gain trunk girth. But decent results can be achieved by a grow box. A wide flat would be ideal.

The soil mix you cited sounds fine, just make sure you get the roots sorted out this spring and you will have a leg up! Fertilize after the first flush of growth in spring.

Have fun and good luck!

 

[JudyB]

I have stored these bare root seedlings in my fridge for well over a month with great results. If you keep them damp they'll do fine if you want to wait to pot them up.

 

[BigBen]

Thank you all.
How would you suggest I pot the bare rooted material, at this point?

 

[JudyB]

I guess I should clarify, I don't pot the bare root seedlings, just keep the roots wrapped in a moist material like newspaper shredding and plastic wrap. I take them out every so often and wet the whole tree as well, the fridge is a dry climate.

 

[BigBen]

Cool, thank you.
So I'll leave them alone (but water them) for a few more weeks before planting the bare footed seedlings.

 

[JudyB]

I believe I even left mine in the box they came in last year. Just don't forget about them lol...

 

[Dan92119]

I got some trident maples and crab apple trees from Matt also. Warmer here. I planted them about a month ago, they are already growing. I planted in the yard so they have space to get big.

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Hi All,
Happy Sunday.
Sorry if these are dumb-ass questions, but I just want to do my best to keep 'em alive and hopefully have them flourish.

I received my Trident Maples safe and sound, from Matt. VERY NICE JOB MATT!
I've been searching and reading the forums and have gotten some great information, but I'm still not positive on what I should do next with respect to planting them.
Should I leave the two potted plants as-is for now, then re-pot them within a given time period?

Also, I'm guessing I should pot the un-potted bare-root trees ASAP?
What size pots (or grow boxes) should I pot them in, or should I pot them in the ground (I'm hesitant on the ground idea, due to the climate here)?
Should I use my 40% lava, 40% pumice, 20% pine bark soil, or use "typical" compost based soil with some added ingredients?

Then fertilize beginning just before Spring?


Once again, I truly appreciate everyone's help & guidance,
BigBen

Hi BigBen,
I have recently built some grow boxes for some of my trees as the 4 inch depth of the box is good for training the roots to grow flat etc. @markyscott helped me with his thread on the boxes. Hopefully he might chime in here as he has done heaps of work with tridents and great threads to learn from.
My boxes are 13 inch square, but I am planning a few bigger ones for some stumps etc.

Charles

 

[sorce]

have stored these bare root seedlings in my fridge for well over a month with great results

This sounds like a good time to search for a couple rocks!

Sorce

 

[BigBen]

When's the smartest time to plant those bare-rooted seedlings?

 

[defra]

Smartest in spring at bud break
I dont know anything about your climate so no help there

over here i guess they could be planted now with some frost protection if it would start freezing but so far we didnt realy have a winter yet

 

[WNC Bonsai]

When planting bare root seedlings should you just stick the whole root in the ground or snip off any long tap roots? What about doing the CD trick over the roots so the tree basically cuts off the tap root as it expamds in girth? I have also wondered whether simply placing a band of copper wire around the root at the point where you want to cut it off so as to induce shallow root formation. It seems placing the CD over the roots would do a lot of damamge but I have seen photos online where folks have done it.

 

[Bonsai Mike]

When's the smartest time to plant those bare-rooted seedlings?

I’m in the same boat as you with 4 one gal starters. Once the buds swell up, the 2 trident are going into Anderson flats with Bonsai soil and my Amur and hackberry are going in the ground same timing. I’d leave them as is until then other than keeping the soil from drying out completely.

The wait is killing me too but hang in there. Timing the repot and root work with the bud swell but just before leaf might be different region to region. Trust your eyes. I have found a couple good threads here and bonsai4me has some good progression pics to show the stages of the buds on a maple.

 

[Bonsai Mike]

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/swollen-bud-sweet-spot.18635/
Same zone with pics. I would have guessed this was before April. Very helpful thread.

 

[Andrew Robson]

Take a look at this post: http://thingsofwood-gary.blogspot.com/2011/12/trident-building-process.html

 

[BigBen]

Hi All,
OK, I just HAVE to ask this.
Being that my baby Tridents are going to be potted soon, several are still packed & wrapped bare root, and 2 are in very small seedling pots about 2 1/2" x 2/2" or so. (photo is in my original post).
They're in my unheated garage, and I can see very small leaves beginning to show.

Being that these are very young/thin seedling trees, should just I plant each of them in plastic pots, or should I build a few shallow grow boxes for them???

I'm guessing it is OK use my 40% Lava, 40% Pumice, 20% Organic mix for them too.

Thanks again for all of the help & guidance...
I'M HAVIN' A BLAST!!!

Ben

 

[WNC Bonsai]

You’re not alone, my shipment from Matt just got here—10 tridents, 3 Korean hornbeams, and 3 Chinese quince. The Quince have full blown leaves on them, and the tridents are breaking bud. The sad thing is I had planned to stick these in the gound but now we have a freeze predicted for Monday night and more next weekend. With their advanced state, putting them in the refer is out. I guess I can try putting in the ground and then piling leaves up over them for some protection. Maybe it won’t be a killing frost

 

[markyscott]

Take a look at this post: http://thingsofwood-gary.blogspot.com/2011/12/trident-building-process.html

Good to see you back posting here Andrew. You were missed.

S