Trident Maple Defoliation

Candy_J_Shirey

Trident maple update
...less than one month after defoliation...

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dsc04238a.jpg (68.2 KB, 268 views)

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Candy_J_Shirey

Continuing ramification...

This trident was defoliated last week. Ramification is developing well.

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trident.jpg (69.6 KB, 139 views)

weeijk

Hi Candy,


Walter Pall told me once, that when a trunk is chopped, all new branches are of the same age. To get some different thickness its very important to let the onces who must get thicker/bigger, grow out. So you should let the lower 2 to 3 branches grow out, maybe as long as a foot, to gain thickening of those. The other guys are right with their remark about the lower branches, you know.

At your next defoliation, I wouldn't cut the leaves of the 3 lower branches. As Trident is apical dominant, the top usely grows more and gains thickness than the lower part. (as you can see comparing the first left branch and a left one in the "new" apex)

This is just my opinion on the defoliation part, as David allready stated, this tree has a very powerfull trunk with a very good taper. This will be a very nice one in a few years. Congrats to that!

Wessel

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Every tree can be a bonsai, but only some will be.

I.B.

Here is a photo of one of my Trident maple bonsai which was recently completely defoliated.

Every leaf was carefully removed in mid-June and now in mid-July it looks like this, great! The reason it looks so good is because we have been pinching ALL the new shoots every other day. The leaves are remainig tiny and with the colorful spring growth.

Yes, lots of work, but worthwhile to maintain the size and extremely short branch ramfication of this specimen.

This bonsai has been in training for over 25 years and the branches are well proportioned, large ones on bottom and thinner ones near the top, so it was not necessary to partially defoliate the tree. It was partially defoliated several years ago, but now that it has developed into a pleasing form, the entire tree is defoliated.

One reason it looks so good (and the color is off on this image when I optimized it, the color changed...) is because Matt Ouwinga from Chicago came to our local club and showed our members how to pinch the new shoots after defoliation.

So the key factor is the time consuming technique of pinching the new shoots nearly every day. Lots of work, but worthwhile.

By the way, this bonsai was not pinched daily in the past because I did not think it was developed enough and because it was time consuming. I do NOT pinch the new shoots of defoliated bonsai unless they are developed to my taste and standards.

Bill

The first photo (early spring leafing out) was taken in May 2003

The seond photo (small foliage) was taken in July 2006

Attached Images

	NEW-TRIDENTweb.jpg (70.4 KB, 101 views)
	SPRING-TRIDENTweb.jpg (70.9 KB, 124 views)

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William N. Valavanis

kaedebonsai

Great photo Bill, but the real treat was to see this trident in real life! The look of an unbroken trunk and the detail of the branch size is very nice on this tree. I really liked the pot also, the match is wonderful.

Candy,

Nice trident. My suggestions would be very similiar to those mentioned about letting the lower branches thicken for now and no need to defoliate the bottom. The tree's trunk has a lot of character and movement, however the apex is rather thin and lack taper. I would suggest cutting down the current apex, very far down and letting it grow out and cut it once a year for the next three years. This can give you some taper in the apex that will match the tree.

I would find a shallower, but larger bonsai pot. Looks like this pot is too high and deep for the height and size of the trunk. Its also a ways away from being in a finished bonsai pot, so something larger would really help in the top growth and overall development.

Do you know the history of the tree? Looks imported, and if it is, looks Korean. Or I could have totally missed the mark

Matt Ouwinga

ROBOKU

Nice fat trident you got there
does look imported or did you grw yourself ?

Rob

TreeBay

Roboku, who are you asking?

Regards,

Matt

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