Sean’s Trident Projects

[SeanS]

This one I call "old man reaching for apple"
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One of the first seedlings I put some twists and turns into. The top twist is a bit too tight and might eventually close up on itself. I don't like that lower branch that I wired initially at all so I'm going to use it as a sacrifice instead and then cut it off once it's done its job thickening the trunk.

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[SeanS]

Future trident clump I started earlier this season with 15 seedlings threaded through a washer. The little seedlings are growing quickly and have started to fill up the hole in the washer. I’m confident by the end of the season they should start fusing

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[SeanS]

This is a seedling I put a gentle curve into last season in its first growing season. It was in a crowded pot with a bunch of other seedlings so I couldn't get the bend low enough closer to the roots. This season when I repotted it into its individual pot I slid a washer down over the trunk and supported it with some wire props in the spot where I wanted to layer the seedling. Once the trunk thickened enough it started swelling around the washer. Last week I decided to carry out the layer operation.








Here it is 6 days later... I love tridents!

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

How has it taken me this long to see this thread?

I've also been playing with tridents but at a much smaller scale. I tried some seedlings in a hole projects, but I'm finding the wood I used is breaking down too quickly. The big fender washers and metal plates certainly seem to be a better route.

Following along!

 

[SeanS]

A new tree to me, picked up this landscape trident and a ginkgo on Monday for the equivalent of 19 USD/17 EUR/14 GBP each. The trident has a nice fat base and some low shoots already present. I plan on layering off 2 trunk sections further up and then working with the base next season.




I really do get the most out of my Audi A3 hatchback

 

[Shibui]

Can I just go ahead and cut the roots of the seedlings off or should I slowly wean the seedlings off their roots by witling the seedling trunks below the grafts away?

If you are confident the grafts are good you can cut cold turkey but I usually take bark off a bit at a time just in case. Yours appear to be much bigger above the graft which usually indicates good sap flow through the graft.

 

[SeanS]

Did some shoot selection and redirected the new leader on my 2nd biggest trident. There was a sacrifice growing low on the trunk that I removed mid December. That sacrifice has caused the nebari to expand horizontally really nicely below where it came out or the trunk, so I’ve chosen a new front to show off the wide base. I’ll need to grow a new sacrifice from that same spot to heal the wound from the original low sacrifice and also get that base to swell some more to smooth out the bulge that the previous sacrifice left. It’s caused a little bit of inverse taper at that spot but I think a new low sacrifice will sort it out.
Higher up the tree I picked the best highest shoot and wired it to the right

December 12, 2021




Present day. The chopsticks are set at the possible future planting angle based on the nebari which I uncovered during this work (it’s covered



Future

 

[SeanS]

double post

 

[Mikee002]

This is an awesome post, sparks lots of ideas!!

 

[Pitoon]

Excellent projects! That's one really good thing about tridents is you see results fast! Did you check on the ROR yet?

 

[SeanS]

Excellent projects! That's one really good thing about tridents is you see results fast! Did you check on the ROR yet?

@Pitoon they've only been in the ground for 4.5 months down here in South Africa, but I’ve had a little top level peak in an earlier post

Here are some of the rocks. I managed to get the roots of my seedlings over these guys amazingly! If all goes to plant I will easily have the best ROR tridents in South Africa (without getting too ahead of myself).
The only issue is because I used seedlings the first nodes are a bit high up on all of them so I’ll be grafting right on the rocks where the trunks leave the roots next spring to build the trunks. Basically everything above the rocks currently will be cut off eventually and only serve as sacrifices while I’m building the roots



I have a ROR album on my phone, these are some of the trees I’m using as inspiration that have similar rocks under them

 

[Pitoon]

@Pitoon they've only been in the ground for 4.5 months down here in South Africa, but I’ve had a little top level peak in an earlier post

Here are some of the rocks. I managed to get the roots of my seedlings over these guys amazingly! If all goes to plant I will easily have the best ROR tridents in South Africa (without getting too ahead of myself).
The only issue is because I used seedlings the first nodes are a bit high up on all of them so I’ll be grafting right on the rocks where the trunks leave the roots next spring to build the trunks. Basically everything above the rocks currently will be cut off eventually and only serve as sacrifices while I’m building the roots

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I have a ROR album on my phone, these are some of the trees I’m using as inspiration that have similar rocks under them

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I wish I could find rocks like those!

 

[SeanS]

I wish I could find rocks like those!

A lot of my rocks I bought from a local landscape nursery. Here in the Gauteng province of South Africa we have a rock type called Pelindaba rock which is very popular for landscaping and hardscaping of gardens, so many nurseries collect nice rocks from the “wild” and sell them. I go and rummage through their pile of the smaller sized rocks every now and the and have found some real gems in the pile.

pelindaba rock - Google Search

 

[Stella]

such great projects. looking forward to see how it develops.
great to see you are doing an air layer now, I was wondering if I can Attempt a air layer now.
If the air layer is successful, would you separate it before or after winter?

 

[SeanS]

such great projects. looking forward to see how it develops.
great to see you are doing an air layer now, I was wondering if I can Attempt a air layer now.
If the air layer is successful, would you separate it before or after winter?

I’ll probably protect it over winter and separate in spring. I want some more thickening this season from the sacrifice up top and I’ll need to chop it off when I separate. There’s no way I can secure the separated layer in a pot with a 1 metre tall lamp post waving in the wind above it

 

[SeanS]

Another fat trunk future shohin added to my collection. I paid R210, the equivalent of $14. Some nice low shoots and buds. I chopped 2.5m off the top in the nursery parking lot. I’ll work the roots and chop it down to the 1st or 2nd set of shoots in spring.

 

[namnhi]

Nice and enjoyable journey you have going on. A lot of nice materials to work with down the road that many bonsaists failed to do after they have spend years in the hobby. You captured the 'time' aspect of bonsai very well. Kudos!

 

[SeanS]

First air layer “issue” out of the 10 or so I’ve done so far. This was my first time layering a trident. I’ve read and heard tridents can be tricky due to callousing over or only producing a few roots, but thought “how hard can it really be?”. We’ll now I know

I set 2 layers on the nursery trident I bought in early Jan. There were 2 nice sections on the trunk I thought I’d save before I chop it down next spring. The upper layer would make a nice chunky shohin and the lower would make an interesting clump. I added a wire tourniquet right up against the upper cut to force some flare once the roots start growing. I used pots and straight perlite. Every few days I checked below the upper layer of perlite and saw loads of callous but no roots.



Yesterday I took the layers apart to see what was happening after 4 weeks…





I recut the callous, cut into the trunks and applied another tourniquet to hopefully stop it bridging. This time I added a paper towel coated in rooting hormone. It’s getting late in the season so I’m hoping this does the trick.

 

[leatherback]

Looks like you did not clean off the cambium in the first try. You did leave the callus on top in place, and just nicked it right?

I would be slightly concerned with overly generous applications of rooting hormones. These things have an optimal range, over which they are detrimental to rooting. And most species do not need it at all when layering.

 

[SeanS]

Looks like you did not clean off the cambium in the first try. You did leave the callus on top in place, and just nicked it right?

I would be slightly concerned with overly generous applications of rooting hormones. These things have an optimal range, over which they are detrimental to rooting. And most species do not need it at all when layering.

@leatherback I cut off the bottom of the callous that had rolled over the wire tourniquet but left majority of it in place. There is still a massive amount of callous overhanging the wire tourniquet and creating an initial flare of about 5-8mm all around the trunk.