Large Trident progression

Here is a Trident Maple (Korean variety with grey bark) that I have been working on. The first two pictures shows the tree when I got it. It has a 10" root flare.





And here is the winter 2010 silhoutte...


And here is a virtual of a future design:


Let me know what you guys think. I have one thread-graft to do this spring. The only problem is a huge deadwood area in the back of the tree that would take atleast 15yrs to heal.

Thanks,
AH

Hi aman.

very nice nebari.

you can't do anything for now with the huge cut wounds, just be sure it won't rot.

regards,
jun

I have wound-sealant around the large cut area in the back (hopefully that should keep it from rotting).

Thanks,
AH

I really like your trident it is a nice looking tree...i also think your virtual will be great for the tree..where if you don,t mind did it come from???il is a good tree.good luck,,,take care john

John,

The Trident was imported from Korea, grown by ‘Korea Bonsai Company’. Tim Thimious imported it in the late 1990s. It landed in WI, then he moved to NC, then Matthew H. Ouwinga (www.kaedebonsai.com) bought it and owned it for 4 yrs. And I bought it from him in spring 2010 for really cheap price (probably because of the large wound in the back).

I am generally not a big fan of larger bonsai, but I couldn't miss this one.

Thanks,
AH

How'd you figure 15 years?

If you let it grow unchecked...especially the leader for a few seasons the scar will heal. Tridents heal very well...IF you let them get their juices flowing by allowing them to grow.

Stop pinching, repot and root prune this spring then feed it and stand back and watch it do its thing. You shouldnt need to thread graft at thi stage of development. The leader you're thread grafting into is the sacrificial leader you'll use to heal the scar. See the pic below....its a decent sized trident. I am slowly growing branches but allowing the leader to grow unrestrained. It had a scar 4-5 inches across 2 seasons ago. Its almost half way healed. I let the leader grow till it was 8-10 ft tall before I even thought about cutting it and that was only to get it in the car to move it to Illinois.

I agree with neil there are several ways you can get that scar to heal over very fast.A large container (cement mixing tub ) lots of fertilizer and corse soil Let it grow freely un pruned and 2 times a year re cut around the calous and re seal this will provoke the tree to produce more callous tissue where you need it Here is an example of one of my trees that this technique was used on .Unsure how long it took to heal but this cut was half of the tree.


This particular tree was re planted in to the ground after the cut was made to let grow freely to excellerate the healing of the wound then cut back hard . you can still see some remnance of the old cut paste in the area of healing this cut is 100% healed over.I will be re styling this tree this spring and putting a vid on you tube.

Thanks for the advice, I will plan on growing a sacrifice leader above the scar and most probably from the back side. Also, I heard that by scarring the cambium around the edges of the wound speeds up the healing process a little (I will give this technique a shot too).

By the way, the scar is really big... it is 2/3 the length of the tree and reaches all the way to the roots. That is why I gave a safe estimate of 15 years for it to heal.

Thanks,
AH

After letting the leader grow freely you may then decide to re-chop to induce further taper. Thats how those big stumps get such great taper. Chop grow & heal, rechop grow and heal etc......

Besides, by that time you may have a different thought about the tree.

In our climate I would suggest a container with large particle coarse soil, and miracle grow 1x per week once growth starts. It would not like the cold too much in Chicago...or the wind for that matter.

Here is the update on the Trident. I have it in a bonsai pot, rather than a training pot becuase it is up for trade/sale.

It will look a lot nicer once the branches under the apex grow out to fill in the shape.



- S

Aman,
Since the tree was just repotted, make sure you allow it several weeks of unrestrained growth. Tridents need this in order to ensure they grow many new roots and to gather the strength needed to get work done. It looks like its been trimmed/pinched....wait till mid June and the tree will respond really well to cutting back.

Thanks Neil... I will wait till June.

This picture is from April, the tree has a decent amount of more foliage now (I was too lazy to get a recent picture). It was repotted around the end of March.

Guest wrote: The only problem is a huge deadwood area in the back of the tree that would take atleast 15yrs to heal.

Thanks,
AH

never thought i'd hear the words "deadwood" and "problem" in the same sentence. the deadwood portions are a great basis for adding some strange focal point to the tree.

The biggest problem with this tree is the lack of branches in the bottom third of the trunk. The tree is also potted a bit too high up and looks as though its on stilts. Its not a bad tree. It would make a great "project tree" for you to learn exactly how to correct problems using various techniques. I have quite a few pretty nice tridents, but I keep one tree around I call "trident-stien" I use him to experiment with. After 3-4 years he's become a decent tree....and I have learned a ton using it as a guinea pig.

I would think twice about selling and use this tree to learn basics with.

My thoughts: Learn how to graft for branches, learn how to graft roots and get the root ball into a shallow pot. That will pay off dividends down the road.

For what its worth,
Neil

Update?

Brendan - looks like the OP may have jumped ship... they are now showing up as "guest"...