Double Trunk Maple

bonsaial1

This double trunk maple has been a nightmare for me. Each year it pushes hard new growth. The new growth hardens off and then the tree just sits there and sort of shuts down. Sometimes it gets all new buds at the base of the leaf petiols, but the never open. They just sit there till next year. I have decided that I am going to take a chance on this tree this year. I have not defoliated this tree for the last 2 years, due to the fact that the tree never really shows signs of movement. I had changed the design ever so slightly this spring by wiring up new apexes at the tops of the trunks. before the new tops each was the same height and looked out of balance. hopefully it is looking better now. This last spring the tree had been repotted, hopeing that that was the reason for the stopage of growth. NOT!

Anyway, this is the tree this morning before I started. It is 21 inches tall and the trunk is 1.5 inches across at the base.

Attached Images

twin.jpg (33.6 KB, 1056 views)

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bonsaial1

I took off every stinkin leaf, and did some prunin. I also found out that the wire I had put on in Jan. had cut in fairly deeply in some spots. Just what I needed, more damage. I cleaned up the pot and decided to take its picture fairly formal. We'll see what she does in the next few weeks. If it looks good next month I may show it in the Tulare Fair.

Bonsaial

Attached Images

twintrimmed.jpg (33.2 KB, 993 views)

bonsaial1

My own critique. The two trunks have little taper. The right trunk is too straight in the middle section for my liking. It needs some movement in the middle area. cutting down the left trunk helped in adding some interest, but not enough. The apex areas have some taper but that is due to me working those areas after the initial chops. If the split in the trunks were just a little lower I might seriously think about layering off the tops and making a nice fat double trunk shohin. If anyone wants to play with a virtual of that go ahead. I might still consider this route if it looks worthy. Does anyone think it would be worth the trouble to thread graft in the middle of the right trunk. There are no bends there but it may add depth. I'm not sure?

Bonsaial

Carl_Bergstrom

Al,

I pretty much agree with everything you said in your self-critique, and I have little to add to that. I tried to figure out if you could improve the tree but cutting down that left trunk even further, as in this virtual. (This virtual is five-minute job that doesn't address most of the other problems that you mention, but rather leaves those as-is.)

Problem is, my virtual ended up worse than the original tree! That's not supposed to happen when you're doing virtuals, I gather.
I can fix most of the things that I don't like about it - but fixing those things is just as hard as fixing the original tree.

But having made it, I may as well post it just so that the idea is out there.

Best,
OMC

Attached Images

maple_ak.jpg (26.2 KB, 944 views)

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bonsaial1

OMC, What do you think about the shohin idea? Think the fork is too high?

TreeBay

I had one of these once, too.

The fork is too high, the V is too narrow, and the trunks are almost the same thickness

All of these are really tough to correct. Might be a good one to "off" on the sales table.

For twin trunks, the ratio of the trunks should be closer to 1:2, and they should fork right at the rootbase. Also it's much better to have a more of a U shape than V right at the bottom, because the space between will fill in very rapidly.

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Carl_Bergstrom

I sure don't see how to get it to work.

I keep looking for some clever and radical solution this tree, but I just don't see it.

Best thing I can see is to lose one trunk altogether and go with a single-trunk tree - but I can't tell whether is is desirable or even feasible from this 2-d photo.

Cheers,
OMC

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juliet-of-oz

back in the grow box to get a better nebari. it currently looks like king of the mountain and would look better with a flatter root spread (flatter - hmm is that a word? lol)

keep the growth on the smaller trunk down to just stubs and let the other trunk have some sacrifice branches in an attempt to get some size diff between the two trunks. (might not work but its worth a shot).

I also prefer the thickest lowest branch to be on the larger trunk, it look more balanced to me this way. so i have done a very quick virt of what i mean I also dont like this tree in this pot.

yes the split is too high and yes the trunks are not perfect but if you can get the branching and ramification and nebari corrected, when its in leaf i bet it would look pretty good

cheers

juliet

juliet-of-oz

yep and the pic i meant to attach, dont ya just hate the flu....

Attached Images

maplevietme.jpg (32.6 KB, 903 views)