Trident Maple trunk binding questions

[BackyardBonsai]

I'd skip the fusion route. It's a trident maple after all and you're going for shohin.

TP, can we see the one you have that you put on the board on another thread.

 

[Dav4]

Whether you use the board or not ( I recommend it), you're going to need to dig the trees regularly and work the roots. Tridents have a tendency, when ground grown, to only develop a few very large roots which will, in turn, produce an unbalanced and ugly nebari. I've found that going 3 years between digs is actually too long... but the good news is they truly grow like weeds and will still develop very fast. Fwiw, if you're truly interested in growing a shohin, you may want to skip the ground growing entirely and stick growing in a container- wooden box or anderson flats were made for this sort of thing- where you'll have more control over everything. In my experience, tridents grow so quickly in the ground that it's very difficult to produce a nice shohin trunk- read that as a trunk without a large chop scar

 

[thumblessprimate1]

TP, can we see the one you have that you put on the board on another thread.

I haven't worked on it yet. I'll post it later. It may be one I'll sell or trade in future as I no longer want to keep too many large trees. The base is big but trunk uninteresting to me. I think I skipped working on it last year. I've considered chopping it hard to try for clump style, but I may need to chop higher bc i dont want to risk not having any buds pop and losing whole tree. If ever i start a trident again, it'll be for shohin.

 

[Warpig]

Did some more reading. I'm thinking about using the "board threading" trick to get some nabari. I'm going to try to get one of them in the ground within the next week or so (just transplanting without touching the roots) And the other two will be test subjects.

Make sure to remember to grab some pictures to keep us posted.

 

[Schmikah]

Make sure to remember to grab some pictures to keep us posted.

I'm, currently, planning on doing the transplants this weekend and I'll open up another thread with plenty of photos for those of us who like picture books.

@Dav4 I'm putting one in the ground just to see what happens, no boards or tricks. One I'm going to board in an oversize pot that I'll let grow for mid-size and controlled nebari. The last one I'm going to put in a training pot with board for shohin that I'll probably be repotting yearly to keep the growth under control and (from what I've seen) I can transfer to a much smaller training pot after 2-3 years to start the heavier design work.

On a completely unrelated note. I have two southern live oak whips that I will look over and, potentially, try to board one as well.

 

[thumblessprimate1]

If no board at least place a big tile under. It makes digging it up a lot easier later. You just cut around tree and lift.

 

[Schmikah]

If no board at least place a big tile under. It makes digging it up a lot easier later. You just cut around tree and lift.

I was thinking about putting a sizable rock under it. Some of the slate around here would make a very nice root-over-rock planting if it looks good after a few years. If not then it acts like a tile and I can just trim around it. But that will require me to pick out some rocks so we'll see.

 

[small trees]

If you're thinking you might want a root over rock, you need to commit to it and bind the roots to the rock ahead of time. Either way is fine, but I doubt that it will adhere to the rock unless you force it.