Working on dormant trident maple again

[kmdesigns]

I have a trident maple I bought back in December and did a small amount of work on it to get rid of a couple of old dead sacrifice branch stubs. I have been thinking about removing a couple of lower branches because I think they are useless. I did this when I bought in December and was wondering how wise it would be if I were to remove these other branches and do a little bit of cleaning up wounds for proper healing.

Smoke, if you read this, this is one of the trees from the yard sale that was purchased from I believe a mister Ed Clark. I don't know if that helps but it may give you an idea of age and health.

 

[Smoke]

Now would be a great time. Make sure you clean the edge of the cambium with a sharp knife. Seal the cuts, even with white glue if you have to. Make sure the glue is dry before putting in the dew otherwise it will just melt and run off. It is pretty weatherproof after drying due to the acrilyc in the glue. With the weather due this week, the buds should be almost to the point of popping in two weeks.

 

[kmdesigns]

So even though I worked on it just over a month ago, because it was dormant it will be ok to do a little more work on it?

 

[Smoke]

How many branches that will remain have buds on them? I bought two and have already pruned them for this spring. Some of them had a lot of branches on them and most need to be removed. I have never bought stock from Ed in a bare root condition so I left about 5 branches on each tree with about 10 buds on each. Some may have less buds.

Once they bud and I can get a feel for their aggresion, I can do more work next year or mid season in August.


A picture would be worth a thousand words. PM me, I would be happy to come by anytime, schedule permitting.

 

[kmdesigns]

I plan on leaving at least 8 to 10 branches with buds for selection later on. I mainly want to remove the lowest branches and do some carving work on the trunk to ensure the wound heals as smooth as possible.

 

[kmdesigns]

Well I went ahead and did the work I wanted to. Hopefully everything turns out alright. The first pic is the tree with the branches I'm leaving on for the next year or so and the second pic are the large wounds that will hopefully heal without too much of a scar.

By the way Smoke I was the guy who bought the 2 junipers from you at the yard sale.

 

[Smoke]

Those scars look very clean and manicured. They should heal well. Make sure to seal them. Something flexible, even gasket cement will work, or rubber cement for paper.

Unless you have something in mind for those branches you have left, I would prune them back shorter. You will be kicking yourself later for not taking advantage of a growing season by growing out from shorter stubs. By pruning back shorter, you can add taper to the branch just the same as chopping the trunk.

 

[jk_lewis]

Shouldn't those scars be hollowed out? It looks to me as if there will be a bulge of callus at the point where both branches were cut.

 

[Smoke]

Shouldn't those scars be hollowed out? It looks to me as if there will be a bulge of callus at the point where both branches were cut.

Yes, you would be correct...but... noticing that the two scars are large ones, nearly as large as the trunk is across are currently seperate at this point. If they were leveled out, and even hollowed to become flat, I think the two would become one wound and would probably sacrifice roots under the large scar, if it hasn't already.

If it were me, I would just let the tree heal over the bulges and take advantage of the bulges later by allowing some trissue to build between them and then clean each one seperatly and get them down. I find once a good ring of callous starts to move, it is like the "blob" and will heal fast. Sometimes it is really tough to get it to start.

 

[discusmike]

That makes sense Smoke,they are very large scars,ive seen tridents that were cut concave all at once that died back in that area and never healed properly,which leads me to believe it was because of the size of the wound.

 

[kmdesigns]

Do you think I should wait until next year to re-pot the tree? Mitch was talking about using as a re-potting demo for next months beginner class, but that as before I did all this work to it.

 

[Smoke]

I would wait. The soil he put these in is pretty good. I don't think transplanting it will improve its vigor. It should have that with the soil it's in.

I also should mention that if anything sprouts adjacent to the wounds you corrected, let them grow this year. It will do two things. It will speed up the healing process and it will keep the roots beneath that large wound area nourished, otherwise those roots will dry up.