advice on field grown trident maple

[Gary McCarthy]

At the National show in Rochester, NY this past September I purchased a 12 year old field grown trident maple from Julian Adams. This coming spring I need to repot it into some better bonsai soil and also do some root work. The tree also needs a number of branches removed and the primary branch structure wired and set. I'm thinking I need to leave all the branches after the repot to help re-establish the root system. Do I need to wait till the spring of 2020 to do the work on removing the branches and setting the initial branch structure? Or once I see signs of new growth after the repot and root work can I do it then?

 

[namnhi]

Have you read Scott's field grown trident?
I believe he did everything in one go.

 

[Dav4]

No, tridents grow like weeds and I would do all the work you described above at the appropriate time next year. For me that would be in February

 

[markyscott]

At the National show in Rochester, NY this past September I purchased a 12 year old field grown trident maple from Julian Adams. This coming spring I need to repot it into some better bonsai soil and also do some root work. The tree also needs a number of branches removed and the primary branch structure wired and set. I'm thinking I need to leave all the branches after the repot to help re-establish the root system. Do I need to wait till the spring of 2020 to do the work on removing the branches and setting the initial branch structure? Or once I see signs of new growth after the repot and root work can I do it then?

If it were mine, I’d do the structural pruning and repotting all in one go. I’d it all at my normal repotting time in late spring, early winter. Here it’s February, but it would be later in Rochester. You can see what I did on the thread @namnhi mentioned.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

the primary branch structure wired and set

Except this. I wouldn’t bother wiring anything bigger than a matchstick during dormancy. Much better to cut it off and start over.

S