Trident Progression, 5 years

[james]

Dav4, Yes picture not so hot, home remodel in progress. I agree, a clean winter picture is needed. Plan to lime sulfur, cut back, repot and rotate this winter. Should produce a more informative image. Will do.

 

[Dav4]

Dav4, Yes picture not so hot, home remodel in progress. I agree, a clean winter picture is needed. Plan to lime sulfur, cut back, repot and rotate this winter. Should produce a more informative image. Will do.

Really looking forward to the updates... and good luck with the home remodel... been there, done that... sooooo much fun.

 

[AndrewS1983]

Nice progression ! Bravo

 

[james]

Here are a bit cleaner pictures. All wire off. Leafless pics in a couple of months.

 

[JudyB]

Just a great rework. Kudos!

 

[miker]

Beautiful tree James. Simply amazing.

Is overwintering a challenge in your location?

 

[james]

Miker,

Overwintering is an issue for me. I started bonsai in Seattle, where the climate works well for the trees to be outside year round. In the last 15-20 years I have lived in the Midwest (Minneapolis and Sioux Falls), zone 4-5. Not hospitable to maple/trident. I had a greenhouse in Minneapolis, and am currently building a greenhouse here in Sioux Falls, where I will have trees exposed to sunlight, and keep temps around 40F. We had frost last night, a couple of those is good to set trees dormant in the fall. By late October/early November, trees will be in the greenhouse. Using a greenhouse here can be difficult in early spring (March-April) when maples will start to push, yet outside temps can fall to 20F at night. The biggest challenge is keeping greenhouse temps low in early spring. If unchecked, the heat gain on a sunny day can drive temps up quickly. It gives me something to tinker with in late winter, early spring. Usually, I can get the trees outside in May.

 

[Giga]

Nice trident!

 

[BigBen]

Miker,
Using a greenhouse here can be difficult in early spring (March-April) when maples will start to push, yet outside temps can fall to 20F at night. The biggest challenge is keeping greenhouse temps low in early spring. If unchecked, the heat gain on a sunny day can drive temps up quickly. It gives me something to tinker with in late winter, early spring. Usually, I can get the trees outside in May.

Excellent work James, that Trident is outstanding!
Thanks for sharing!

Just a quick question regarding your greenhouse, and the Springtime temperature swings.
In my quest to learn more, do you have any initial ideas on how to combat those 20F night-time temperatures and the daytime heat gain?
Possibly a thermostatically controlled fan or two, to help keep the temps low enough on the Sunny days?
Maybe a heat source to deal with the other side of that coin?

I'd love to hear more, as a greenhouse has been in my plans forever.

Thanks Again,
BB

 

[JudyB]

Miker,

Overwintering is an issue for me. I started bonsai in Seattle, where the climate works well for the trees to be outside year round. In the last 15-20 years I have lived in the Midwest (Minneapolis and Sioux Falls), zone 4-5. Not hospitable to maple/trident. I had a greenhouse in Minneapolis, and am currently building a greenhouse here in Sioux Falls, where I will have trees exposed to sunlight, and keep temps around 40F. We had frost last night, a couple of those is good to set trees dormant in the fall. By late October/early November, trees will be in the greenhouse. Using a greenhouse here can be difficult in early spring (March-April) when maples will start to push, yet outside temps can fall to 20F at night. The biggest challenge is keeping greenhouse temps low in early spring. If unchecked, the heat gain on a sunny day can drive temps up quickly. It gives me something to tinker with in late winter, early spring. Usually, I can get the trees outside in May.

I have much the same setup here, and have the same challenges in the spring. I've largely given up trying to stop early growth, and have added many grow lights and heating, so I just make it spring in there early once they start to move. The other thing I've thought about is a unit called a coolbot. If you have not seen these, they basically make a regular room ac unit act as a cooler chiller. So you can set the temp to stay around 40. I haven't gone that route yet, but I've been tempted with all the fluctuations in the mid winters lately.

 

[JudyB]

Possibly a thermostatically controlled fan or two, to help keep the temps low enough on the Sunny days?

Make your greenhouse not so much a solar one, but a cold house so to speak, put a real roof in, instead of a transparent one. Less solar temp gains that way. I've got fan and vent that are thermostatically controlled so it'll pull the cold outside air in and vent the hot air out the other end. But on warmer days, it's a battle all the same to keep the temps low if it's a long stretch of sunny days. I have a link to my greenhouse (cold house) build if you want LMK.
Sorry @james for getting in your thread...

 

[BigBen]

@JudyB

Thank you JudyB, PM sent.

I also apologize for the tangent.

 

[Giga]

The tree seems to have a lot of lanky long branches - do you think this would look better with some cutbacks this spring?

 

[james]

Regarding greenhouse/temp swings ...

Its a pain. I formerly had a greenhouse with glass roof, heated floor and vent/fan. Did well in dead of winter and early spring. Later spring, I did as Judy mentioned, and just had an early spring, let trees push. Summer was terrible, too hot and vent/fan could only get down to outside temp. So fan ran much of the day, and it sounded like you were in a wind tunnel.

Second house, next go around. Largely solid roof, with windows on 2 sides. More like a sunroom/enclosed glass porch. My goal is to get enough light for spring, but decrease heat gain. Being constructed now, gotta hurry as I only have about another month before trees need to go inside!

 

[james]

Giga,

About the lanky branches ... good observation, you are right. In building the branches, I have let tree grow unchecked in spring, wired branches out and let them run. Don't get good ramification this way, but able to set general branch structure. With leaves gone, I will cut back moderately hard in spring. The number of branches I let run with go down, and I will be working on ramification. General profile a bit rounder to pic above, but will need several seasons of cut back to get more ramification.