Trident work

[Mojosan]

I have a trident that I picked up last fall. It has a trunk about 1 1/2 " and it's about 12" tall.

The lower trunk has no branching, and a now healed chop at the top is ringed with too thick branches creating a "knob" at the top. Scars show that some branches were removed at this "knob" in the field, but they all must go eventually.
I would like to chop this below the knob area hoping for bud break lower on the trunk.

We are still in winter here, and this tree (along with most of my others) is in an unheated garage. I am wondering if I can do this chop now, while the tree is still dormant, or if I need to wait till the buds begin to swell?
Is there an advantage either way?


Thanks.

 

[jk_lewis]

I'd wait. Even down here, where the buds are at least thinking about spring, it's too early to do a chop.

 

[misfit11]

Maybe its just different philosophies, but I had always heard that you NEVER do any hard pruning on maples after bud break because they can essentially "bleed to death" from sap loss. I do hard pruning in the fall after leaf drop or in the dead of winter when they are dormant. This seems to be contrary to what is being suggested here.

 

[jk_lewis]

Think hard. Have you ever had a tree "bleed to death?" I've been doing bonsai for a LONG time. I've never seen it -- tho people keep blathering on about it.

And even if it were possible, some Alum -- or even a pinch of dirt -- rubbed into the cut would block the flow. The maple syrup industry would quickly vanish if it were true.

I think people just think the bleeding sap looks bad. Tree sap is (in small part) the tree's own cut paste.

 

[rockm]

Maples won't bleed to death. They will produce alot of sap when chopped sometimes.

That can be minimized by pruning the roots before doing the chop...prune the roots twenty minutes or before doing the chop. It reduces the sap pressure on the top.