Trident development suggestions?

New to this post...

Looking for suggestions for the future development of this Korean trident import: height 28", trunk 3.5", root spread 10". I repotted and roughly developed 2 years ago, with the winter and late summer images below:



Winter 2008



Late Summer 2008

My belief is the pot, roots and trunk are in good shape, and are pleasing in appearance. My interest is now branch development. The branches appear too small relative to the trunk, and need to be sized up. I enjoy looking at deciduous trees in winter and summer. For winter appeal, the branches need size and further ramification. For summer appeal, the tree looks a bit like an undefined blob, and could benefit from definition, with negative spaces which might be challenging given leaf size. The leaves do reduce (some) with defoliation.

So do I move forward with:

1. Natural look with further ramification, or
2. Defined look (more Japanese) with negative spaces, which may require removing some branches.

Other thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks, Josh

Very nice nebari and trunk...I like the natural growth pattern...try utilizing some sacrifice branches on the lower limbs to get some additional girth.

Looks good but I think you need to lose the lower branches.

Using sacrifice branches rising from the back of the third branch up and higher would still enhance trunk thickening and also improve branch thickness. Just allow one vigorous shoot, near the branch tip, to extend up and away from the trunk for a couple of years.

I agree with removing a few lower branches to give a more dramatic feel to the compisition.It has a nice trunk and needs to be shown off. I also perfer a more natural look as opposed to the traditional japanese pine type look.

Nice tree Josh.
My first instinct was that the tree is not ideally balanced, this impression is given by the branch angles on the lower two thirds of the tree (only really obvious when defoliated), ie. Downward on the left and upward on the right.
I prefer the angle of the trunk as it is so I would suggest training the right hand branches (that you will keep), to match the angle of those on the left.

Josh,

I've got a trident maple similar to this one. The tree is beautiful w/respect to trunk and nebari. But I do think it is out of balance. The primary branches are too thin, a problem which will be corrected by age. The taper starts a little too late, which forces you to allow the tree to be taller than it needs to be. Also, the bend pushes the tree too far to the left.

My suggestions would be as follows:
1. Shorten the crown of the tree by 10-15%. You can't shorten it much more because it will have an adverse effect on your taper.
2. Rotate the tree vertically to the right so that it is more upright. I think the slant style is not becoming this tree.
3. Leave the lower branches on for now. They will serve to provide at least some minimal thickening of the lower trunk which will help your taper. You can always sacrifice them later.

Tim Ahlen
Dallas, TX
Zone 8b

Maybe like this?????

Jim,

Yeah, a definite improvement, at least with the leaves on!

Maybe even a little more off the top left quadrant. To keep it from being a boring "triangle" tree, you'd need to put in some of the negative spaces previous posters mentioned.

You still have the problem of inadequate taper, so Josh would need to feed those lower branches to get some trunk thickening on the lower trunk.

Tim Ahlen
Dallas, TX

I would leave it just as it is.

Buy the way, congratulations on pot selection.