The 2024 Bonsainut Maple Project

[bwaynef]

I'm not going to wait any longer. I've got a few tridents that I'll be working with, and may add a couple Japanese maples and maybe a few others as well. I don't have a final plan for any of these tridents, though I think the larger of these will end up in the 15-18" tall range when it finishes. From the remaining two tridents, I'd love to produce a thick, fast-tapering shohin that fits in a shohin pot.

These were grown in grow beds but ended up giving fairly poor growth relative to what I've seen others produce in the time they were in the ground. That growth (or lack) resulted in me putting them into these grow bags. They sulked for the early part of the season before playing catchup the last half of the season. I trimmed them yesterday, re-addressed cuts and sealed with Callusmate. I have a few ideas on how to kickstart their growth this season that I hope to add in follow-up posts.

 

[Hack Yeah!]

If we want to play, do we post here?

 

[Dabbler]

some good material there! good luck

 

[bwaynef]

If we want to play, do we post here?

Start a thread with this title. I'm following Al's lead from 14+ years ago.

 

[NateDyk47]

Great starting material! How long have you had them? Also, how tall is the big one currently?

 

[leatherback]

Start a thread with this title. I'm following Al's lead from 14+ years ago.

It might make sense to ask @Bonsai Nut to create a subforum / section and have people that join to name the thread including their screenname. "Bwaynef 2024 Japanese Maple Project"

 

[bwaynef]

I’ve got a couple more maple projects. First a formerly triple trunk maple. The middle trunk died off shortly after I received it into my care. This year I’m thread grafting trunks from below. I’m also thread grafting a branch where I coincidentally had an approach grafted branch that came unseated while getting the trunk threadgrafts in place. There was another branch so it just made sense to thread it thru.

I’ve treated the dieback and applied epoxy for the scar to hopefully roll over a couple years back.

 

[bwaynef]

I’m working with another Japanese maple and needed a few more branches in place. I shouldn’t threadgraft when I’m a hurry because I didn’t absolutely hit my spot on one of these but it’s close and I’m the back so hopefully it’ll do.

Also, I’ve never used an approach as a bridge to close a wound but I’ve heard it’s possible so thought I’d give it a try. Pictures attached, hopefully in order: Before, full. Wound. Wound scraped. Scion scraped. Wound scraped and gouged. Scion secured. Puttied you keep out water and nasties. A threadgraft. After.

(Not pictured: skewering the threadgrafts so they’re locked in place and forced to the side or bottom of the hole.)

 

[bwaynef]

Also found one more trident. I applied callusmate after the picture.