Tridents self layer....

Shibui

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Here's what happens when I plant a trident maple a little too deep in the grow beds.
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A closer look shows the previous roots where my fingers are. All the small roots above have emerged during the year in the ground.
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It is a little hard to make out through all the roots but the trunk is now thickest where those new surface roots are and gets thinner as it goes down to the older roots. That seems to be a common feature of many trees. Even a few small roots above the main roots will cause local thickening. Fortunately not all species throw new roots as easily as tridents.
For a few years I used this phenomenon to improve the nebari on ground grown tridents - ignore the current crop of roots and just plant the trunk deep in the ground. In 2-3 years when they were dug again, 8 out of 10 had a good crop of new roots all round the trunk just below soil level. I just sawed off the old root system and kept growing the tridents on the new root system.

In this case I've done a similar thing.
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In some cases it is possible to trim off the new roots and use the old ones as nebari but this time the reverse taper was just a little too pronounced so I've elected to chop. Don't worry that it has few roots. Those will grow fast and new ones will almost certainly emerge from the trunk to add to the future nebari.

In another stroke of luck this trunk splits into 2 just above the new root system which gives me the chance to add early taper to the trunk.
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I would have liked the fork with a little more of an angle to give a low bend in the future trunk but we can't always have exactly what we want. Good potential nebari and some initial taper will have to do for now.
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Really nice explanation and I love those photos!

cheers
DSD sends
 
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