Trident maple stump - spring work

davetree

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Keeping with the idea of posting pics of trees, here is a trident stump I purchased last year. I let the tree grow freely in the traing pot for a year, then this spring chopped everything back and laid out the basic branching. The whips have been left on for grafting new branches just below the apex and to help heal some wounds in back. There are a couple of lumps that appear to give some reverse taper but they will be carved out soon enough. The tree has a nice base but not nice roots so I will be root grafting here pretty soon as well. The third pic shows how fast these trees heal. That was a 3 inch wound last spring, now it is about half that.
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Poink88

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Dave,

Nice tree.

Ever thought of planting it a bit deeper for now?

I would also leave ALL the suckers at the base to help it build some girth and solve the reverse taper issue (seems like some were removed just now). I know others will disagree but it is the very same reason why most reverse taper form so why not exploit it and use it to your advantage?

In same line of thinking, I would also thread graft at the right side of pic 1 just above the healing wound at the back...again just to build that area and address the reverse taper. It can be removed much later.

That is just how I will probably handle this if it is mine. I hope you don't mind my input.

Thank you.
 

davetree

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There really isn't a taper issue with this tree. There are a couple of lumps that need to be carved though. The roots that appear too high in the back view are just that, the real base is underneath. Those roots will be gone by next year hopefully, or I will layer the whole tree.
 
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