New starter Trident Maple...when does one prune the trunk (I know not this season)

sheepinajeep

I just bought a new trident maple, pencil thin trunk, about 2.5 ft tall, all skinny. I plan on re potting it in a larger pot down the road, but I am a little lost....do I just let the maple grow grow grow until the trunk is of preferred thickness? I wasn't planning on pruning leaves or branches, but was just concerned about the height.

Meaning, I don't need to cut down the height of the tree, even if it gets to be 4 feet tall (as an example?) until the trunk was thick? The maple just looks.....tall. and skinny. I just wasn't sure when you start pruning your tree down to the desired height. And no, while I am a completely new at this, I wasn't planning to shear off half the maple today.

Unless, of course, I am supposed to?

Thanks!

Advertisement

Joanie

Tomorrow someone will probably answer you. (It's past bedtime for a lot of folks, not us from Calif, we overlap the wakening Ozzians) But for what it's worth from a pure newbie, something to ponder....

Your tree would grow faster in the ground. You, of course, know this. And you can't put it there because you only have a patio. Right? Can you build a grow box? (search "grow box" on the forum, there was at least one really good thread about them) Your tree will benefit from such a box, because it will have more room/drainage/sideways growth. I bought a forest of Tridents (19!!) in a grow box, and they are doing well. Just a thought.

Now, as to the growing out vs. training. It sure is confusing for us to figure this out. There doesn't seem to be one good way. If you let your tree grow out without any interference, it may not have "movement" which means that the trunk moves gracefully in several dimensions. So it is better to wire movement into it now, while you can. But don't necessarily prune it. Use a fairly heavy wire, or two wires side by side, and just work on the trunk. Don't worry about the branches at all...you very well might regrow them from scratch anyway. I have one tree that has one of those metal thingys with two hooks and a V screw, you hook the hooks around the trunk and the screw the V screw tighter every now and then. It has a name that escapes me right now. That works well, for trunks that aren't really flexible anymore, but wire will probably work for your Trident. If you can get movement into the lower part of your tree, eventually you will chop the upper part and get taper too. So mostly concentrate on the lower third or so.

Look at the movement on trees in pictures, and remember that the tree should move in three dimensions. Remember too that the tree will thicken and straighten as it grows, so put a little more movement into it than you want in the end.

Read up on wiring if you haven't done any yet. Get some good nippers, and aluminum wire. And keep an eye on it this summer! When the tree starts growing, that wire bites in quick!

Now, remember, I'm a newbie too. So wait till tomorrow and see if anyone has better advice!

Good luck, and hope your tree thrives,
Joanie

Joanie

Oh, and of course you can't transplant the maple until early spring. Just keep it in mind.

I meant to mention that by letting the tree grow out you will get the quickest trunk thickness. Although someone mentioned somewhere that trimming the top a bit will push the growth down into the lower branches and if they are very active, too, you might get even more growth. Sounds reasonable. Don't do any defoliating or anything tricky like that, because those methods are for final finesse on a tree. (Unless you defoliate because of an out of season root prune or something specific) And at this point don't worry about branches. Just worry about the roots and trunk.

Joanie

sheepinajeep

THanks so much for the great advice....wasn't even thinking that there were slumbering people out there....

Yeah, I probably won't be creating the grow box this season, only because we are having renovations done on the porch...in fact, talk about bad luck, we have to move all of our stuff off the porch while they do the renovations...might have been a bad time to buy another outdoor plant!

Meanwhile, while I look forward to other people's opinions, I really am happy that you had a lot of good advice to share....was very sure about what to do with the trident!

pootsie

From the ever-helpful Brent:
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/trunks.htm

fwiw,
pootsie