Large slant style Trident.

[terry]

Yeah, the weather's been wonderful lately. Not too dry at all, but no crazy low or high temperatures.

Have you considered (or has anyone yet suggested) doing a ground layer to try to develop a new nebari? I can't see it right now, so I don't know what kind of crown you have to work with there...but you can certainly improve the look by ground layering at the fattest part and trying to develop a new one. And if you have a hard, round, and large-ish piece of plastic, you can secure it really right just beneath the layer site to serve as an impenetrable surface to get the emerging roots to spread radially, which would help you (hopefully) attain an impressive flared nebari.

I have thought about ground layering. I made very severe cut backs to both the top & the bottom of the tree this spring so wanted to give it a year to recover. It will have to be potted next spring, the pot it is in is filling rapidly. I am hoping the new growth on top will continue to expand this summer so a decision can be made this winter.

Terry

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Good plan =)

Definitely good not to disturb anything now. Just thinking out loud: I'm not sure if there's any correlation here or not, but I noticed that when I did a ground layer at the same time I repotted, it shot out roots at the layer site just as fast as it did from the original root mass. If you do the layer next year, you might want to consider a minor yet widespread root pruning to see if it helps speed up the layer process. I'm not saying it's absolutely certain that this will provoke faster callus/root growth at the layer site, but if you feel like doing a little experiment, I think it's worth a shot. ;-)

 

[davetree]

Good plan =)

Definitely good not to disturb anything now. Just thinking out loud: I'm not sure if there's any correlation here or not, but I noticed that when I did a ground layer at the same time I repotted, it shot out roots at the layer site just as fast as it did from the original root mass. If you do the layer next year, you might want to consider a minor yet widespread root pruning to see if it helps speed up the layer process. I'm not saying it's absolutely certain that this will provoke faster callus/root growth at the layer site, but if you feel like doing a little experiment, I think it's worth a shot. ;-)

That's very interesting. Anyone else have experience doing this ?

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

I noticed it first when I did one on a Brazilian Rain Tree, then again on a Bloodgood maple and a few Tridents. I've got an air layer going right now on a Trident that I repotted earlier this year, but I did them at least a month apart. We'll see how it compares.