Trident progression over 5 years

Trident maple import, 4" trunk, 8" root spread, 30" tall, age unknown, in my training for 5 years. Posted 2 years ago, at that time suggestions were to fatten lower branches, and potentially shorten further +/- loose some lower branches. Also mentioned was to unify movement of branches.

Where to go from here? All suggestions welcome. My thoughts at present are to keep lower branches, continue to thicken and lengthen lower branches, work further on unifying branch direction/motion and potentially loose a branch or 2 on right lower third. I don't want a tree with "pads" per see, looking for more natural look. That being said, in leaf the tree is very dense.

Summer 2006:



Early Spring 2008:



Early Spring 2008 (after repot and apex reduced 2"):



Late Spring 2008:



Autumn 2008 (defoliated that Summer):



Summer 2011 (following defoliation, thickening lower branches and branch refinement):



All thoughts, suggestions, virtuals much appreciated!

Woww...what an amazing tree. Beautiful trunk movement.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards

That's a great looking progression. Can you grow out the lower branches to make them the thickest ones on the tree?

Hello Josh. How are you thickening the lower branches without letting the growth run? I would suggest you let the branches grow freely for a season or two without pruning at all. I do this with my trees and let branches extend by several feet to really get the benefit of thickening. The tree is looking great by the way.

Thank you two for your kind remarks. Rob, I think you have identified the biggest weakness in the tree, branches which are thin in proportion to trunk. In particular, several lower branches which are unfortunately thinner than upper ones. Before the last picture above, I had multiple leaders I let grow from lower branches, 2-3 feet long. I will need to do more of the same for several years more.

I would probably remove all of the lower branches below the fairly heavy one on the right just below where the tree bends to the left. I feel that a mature maple or similar deciduous tree will have lost many of the lower branches unless they are growing up enough to spread into the canopy so their tips are at least 1/4 of the total tree height. If you keep the lower branches I think they need to be much thicker as Rob has suggested. This could be done by the use of a long sacrifice or two to go along with the very nice work you have done to develop ramification. Once the sacrifice has gotten well beyond current end of the branch I remove some of the leaves along its base so it is clearly a sacrifice - I don't prune it by accident and I can visually remove it when I am pruning the rest of the branch.