Trident Maple Seedlings - One Year

[Thomas J.]

I would encourage anyone doing tridents from seeds if at all possible to start as soon as possible planting them in the ground. I know for some you might not be able to but just to see what's possible by doing this I'm posting these three that I transplanted on May 20th of this year into the ground. At that time they were 20 and 22 inches in height, today they are 42 and 42 1/2 inches in height a gain of 20 inches in two months. They are just over a year old also. And to note these guys are in full sun with temps recently at 100 or above. Notice the leaves are nice and healthy , a product of heavy watering two times a day and heavy fertilizing once a week for the most part. That little one in the middle just won't go along with the program for some reason or other.

The big tree is the parent tree from which the seeds came from.

 

[RobertB]

How thick are the trunks?

 

[JoeR]

Wow those are so healthy. Certainly something I’ve been trying to work on. My trees this year have not been as healthy as previous years, and I’m wondering if it’s the switch in soil. I don’t think it’s holding nutrients good enough or the ph is off and many are developing a deficiency.

 

[Thomas J.]

How thick are the trunks?

The biggest one is probably 1/2 inch across.

 

[Thomas J.]

So revisiting this post almost one year later and this is what the seedlings now look like at 2yrs old. During the winter when they were bare I began wiring some of the lower branches to shape and just recently had to cut the wire off because it was already starting to bite in.

 

[Pitoon]

@Thomas J. How thick are the trunks now? Looks like the little one decided to play now.

 

[Thomas J.]

How thick are the trunks now? Looks like the little one decided to play now.

Yeah the little one finally got in line and started growing up. As for the trunk size, not much bigger , around 7/8 now but the growing season is still early and I'm expecting by Nov. it should be well past an inch.