New Trident Maple Pre-Bonsai

[Texasbonsai98]

Repotted it in early March, cut back the roots a lot and screwed it to a wooden board.




The branch I was originally gonna use for the leader got broken off so I ended up using a branch that had sprouted as the new leader. I waited a few weeks for the new leader to get stronger then cut it flush and covered it.




Here it is now, the apex shoot is probably about 4 feet tall and the roots have a nice radial spread. The wound has healed some, but it looks like there is some reverse taper around where the cut is healing.



Probably won’t do anything else this year. Not sure if I want to repot it next year or wait, the roots are exactly where I want them they just need to thicken up.

 

[Texasbonsai98]

Did a repot, root pruning and cut back the leader, squirrels chewed up the bark so I think I’m gonna do another trunk cop under the damage if I can get back budding in an ideal spot. I screwed it back to the board and put it in the same Anderson flat it was in. Roots look good, pleased with how they’ve progressed in a year.

Before



And after the root prune

 

[SeanS]

Nice progress. Are you cutting the roots back before planting? You’ve got really long roots extending way our past the wooden board. You should be trimming those roots right at the periphery of the board. Try to plan for eventually Pitting the tree in a bonsai pot. As it stands you’re going to end up with really thick, really long roots all around the tree one day which you’re going to have to chop back massively to fit in a bonsai pot. Rather do that now while you’re building the tree and encourage a nice mat of fine roots close in to the trunk.

 

[BobbyLane]

Nice work, thats developing nicely.

 

[AnutterBonsai]

nice, dude! i agree with @SeanS

 

[Texasbonsai98]

Nice progress. Are you cutting the roots back before planting? You’ve got really long roots extending way our past the wooden board. You should be trimming those roots right at the periphery of the board. Try to plan for eventually Pitting the tree in a bonsai pot. As it stands you’re going to end up with really thick, really long roots all around the tree one day which you’re going to have to chop back massively to fit in a bonsai pot. Rather do that now while you’re building the tree and encourage a nice mat of fine roots close in to the trunk.

I cut back the thicker parts of the roots to the edge of the board, mostly just finer roots that are over the edge. I know tridents are resilient but really wanna make sure it grows strongly this year. I also wanted to try to widen the nebari some by thickening those roots.

 

[Texasbonsai98]

Had its best growth season this year, two different shoots over 4 feet. Roots also looking good as well. Plan for future work is to do a trunk chop in winter to stimulate some back budding and get some shoots below the area that swelled up from the first big cop I made.

 

[SeanS]

Nice growth and widening of the base due to the board. You’ve probably noticed how much the long roots that I questioned you about have thickened already. Next repot they should be cut back close to where they originate from the initially shortened roots to ensure that any further root divisions and thickening happens as close to the trunk as possible to eventually fit the tree into a bonsai pot one day.

Great work

 

[Texasbonsai98]

Nice growth and widening of the base due to the board. You’ve probably noticed how much the long roots that I questioned you about have thickened already. Next repot they should be cut back close to where they originate from the initially shortened roots to ensure that any further root divisions and thickening happens as close to the trunk as possible to eventually fit the tree into a bonsai pot one day.

Great work

Yea definitely, I’m still just trying to widen the nabari some, not sure what the finished size will be but I definitely want a nice wide base.

 

[Mats Hagström]

Like a pro!!!

Looks like your going to end up with a very nice tree. I don’t have much to add other than what SeanS said about the roots.

One thing worth bringing up is the choice of genetics before starting a tree. Trident maples can have different forms of foliage. Some can look wilted as baseline. This varies from tree to tree. Sometimes I do not pay enough attention to what the foliage looks like when selecting trees. I focus on the task at hand which tends to be the trunk and roots when selecting trees. I started a batch from seed last year but I don’t care for the leaves on some of them so I’ll either use those for a grafting project or get rid of the ones I don’t like. Your tree is probably fine but it’s a shame when we have put in a few year of work to recognize our early choices should have been considered more carefully. The most common issue I see is failure to address the roots early. You have managed that sooo well I can’t imagine you tree will be anything but great. Happy growing!!!

Mats H

 

[Texasbonsai98]

Like a pro!!!

Looks like your going to end up with a very nice tree. I don’t have much to add other than what SeanS said about the roots.

One thing worth bringing up is the choice of genetics before starting a tree. Trident maples can have different forms of foliage. Some can look wilted as baseline. This varies from tree to tree. Sometimes I do not pay enough attention to what the foliage looks like when selecting trees. I focus on the task at hand which tends to be the trunk and roots when selecting trees. I started a batch from seed last year but I don’t care for the leaves on some of them so I’ll either use those for a grafting project or get rid of the ones I don’t like. Your tree is probably fine but it’s a shame when we have put in a few year of work to recognize our early choices should have been considered more carefully. The most common issue I see is failure to address the roots early. You have managed that sooo well I can’t imagine you tree will be anything but great. Happy growing!!!

Mats H

Yea very true always best to think a few years ahead when starting a tree. Only issue I may have with this trident is the leaf size, I think it’s cause it’s a lot of new growth that the leaves are big. I do have another trident with more “Japanese” genetics and its leaves are significantly smaller. If I can’t reduce the leaf size I may just have to go bigger than I’m planning right now.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Texasbonsai98]

I’m trying to decide if I should do some pruning now because my goal for next year is to get some shoots below the area of reverse taper.



I’ve heard mixed things on which time of year is best to prune to promote back budding. Will also do heavy root work in the spring.