Trident Care

Hello IBC,

I am particularly interested in Fall care of Trident maple. I have a shohin trident in training, and the branch development has started getting to a point where I need to position them evenly (with the aid of wiring). I need some advice from Trident specialists here on IBC to tell me if Fall wiring with some pruning is a good idea. By pruning I mean shortening some longer whips in Fall.

Thanks.

1st off I am no maple expert but I do have a Bloodgood Japanese Maple that I have been working on for the past 2 years and since no one has answered you...here's my 2 cents.  Remember no matter what time of year you trim a maple you will have die back to the nearest shoot.  In regards to wiring, the major mistake I made was not tending to it everyday, man it will cut into those branches so quickly...much faster than any other tree I have trained and it leaves a nasty scar. I found LST (low stress training) to work better than wiring where possible. Using weights and or tying down branches when ever I could rather than wiring.

Please never use weights. When the wind blows the weight bounces and never lets the branch take a set in one position.
Even hitting it with a water will bounce the weighted branch. Wire it or tie it down.

I generally do spring and summer (after defoliation) wiring, but have left wire on over the winter. If the branch extends very much, the wire will cut in quickly. I generally fall prune to about 1.5 nodes beyond where I want the final pruning. In a light winter they die back to node closest to the pruning cut. In a heavy winter they die back a bit further. In either case, I can trim to the desired location in the spring.