Sean’s Trident Projects

dbonsaiw · Jun 27, 2023

Looks great. How do you pick the rock to use? I would like to try a ROR but not sure what I'm looking for in the rock. Actually went to a rock & fossil store in NYC this morning to check out the possibilities. I seem to be looking at the shiny ascpects of the rock as opposed to the functional aspect.

SeanS · Jul 29, 2023

Spring is here! One of the first tridents to start waking up is a chunky landscape tree I bought in early June, it had a great base with low branches. I chopped it down in the nursery car park and started working on it yesterday. I wired some branches and grafted a branch on the left.

I’ve learnt from some prior landscape tridents that it usually isn’t worth even bothering with the original roots so I found the widest point before the roots started doing their usual funky stuff in the plastic bag and started a ground layer with quick-set cement just below the top cut of the layer.

I wired the tiny shoot to the left of the big shoot in the middle to be my next section of trunk after the photos. I’ll use the foliage on the bigger shoot to fuel the layer and take it off if I see any swelling. The tiny shoot that I’ve wired is still really small so I doubt there will be too much swelling in that area while the bigger shoot grows.

I planted the whole thing in one of my grow beds today with the entire original root ball intact. Hopefully by next winter I can separate the ground layer and start a radial pancake flat nebari.

SeanS · Jul 29, 2023

@AlainK here are my tridents, I’ll be updating this thread in the coming weeks with lots of projects. Many of them are going into their first bonsai pots this season

AlainK · Jul 29, 2023

@SeanS,

I, and most people here I think, imagine South Africa as a very hot, dry country. But it's so big that there are of course many different climate zones.

Acer buergerianum trident maples, are great trees to work with.

I've got one in the back of my garden, it must be the only one kilometres aound I've never seen any in a hundred miles range, in parks or arboretums, can you figure that?), yet, it lives and thrives.
2022,2023, I usually prune it to 2 metres high, but I couldn't this year, and since I can't prune the roots, it's over 3 metres (about ten feet plus more or less a few toes) this year !

Shibui · Jul 30, 2023

SeanS said:
started a ground layer with quick-set cement just below the top cut of the layer.

Intrigued to see how the cement layering works out.

leatherback · Jul 30, 2023

AlainK said:
I, and most people here I think, imagine South Africa as a very hot, dry country.

I spent quite a bit of time in nothern SA. I can confirm you will quickly drop that view of SA after waking up to early morning frost and having to go and do fieldowork at sunrise..

.

AlainK said:
it's so big that there are of course many different climate zones.

Indeed, high rainfall areas get up to ~1200mm / 47 inches of precipitation per year.

Maiden69 · Jul 30, 2023

Shibui said:
Intrigued to see how the cement layering works out.

I have seen quite a few succeed. I think @NaoTK also posted one a while back. @SeanS the only thing I would have added was some reinforcement. A coil or two of copper or steel wire around the tree to prevent the cement from cracking prematurely with the vigor of the trident. I'm deliberating doing the same thing with my large bald cypress, as I didn't know much at the time I planted it and it is a mess of roots very close to the base of the trunk.

SeanS · Jul 30, 2023

Shibui said:
Intrigued to see how the cement layering works out.

@Shibui this clump also has cement around the base and it worked quite well. Perfectly flat radial roots. I’ll repot and separate in the coming weeks

SeanS · Jul 30, 2023

This little ROR has started swelling its buds so it was time to dig it up. I grafted a shoot during the growing season to form the next section of trunk but looking at it now I don’t like where it’s heading so I’ll graft a seedling lower down going in the opposite direction sometime this week.

Something like this

SeanS · Jul 30, 2023

While I was at it I dug up another small one to make space for a new ROR that needed to go where these 2 small ones were.

This tree was started 2 seasons ago by wrapping 2 seedlings around the rock. During this last season I bent a shoot down and threaded it between the trunks of the 2 seedlings. Once it fused I cut off the remainder of the 2 seedlings.

Here’s you can see where the 2 seedling trunks end and the graft takes over. There are buds on the graft right where it comes out from the grafting point and a small shoot that will form the 1st branch on the underside of the graft (you can see it in the side-on shots).

SeanS · Aug 5, 2023

Dug a little trident from a grow bed. Originally started through a washer 3 seasons ago, the roots were a little thick and chunky last spring when I replanted it. It didn’t grow exceptionally well but I did manage to grow another section of trunk and it put on some decent width in the base.

You can see a pretty big gap in the roots in the first photo. 2 root grafts were performed and a 3rd on the back of the tree.

Potted up to start its future bonsai life

luvinthemountains · Aug 6, 2023

SeanS said:
Potted up to start its future bonsai life

Looks like a great little trunk! Nice work.

SeanS · Aug 6, 2023

ROR trident. This one is planned to be a taller, skinny double trunk. It was in a pot placed on the ground in a grow bed so a few roots ran out the bottom and thickens nicely. The roots that remained in the pot (akadama, LECA, perlite) remained wonderfully fine and ramified, so cutting back the thick roots still left me with plenty of feeder roots

Just wish the rock was a different colour, the light brown isn’t ideal against the roots.

Potted back up

The inspiration for this tree

SeanS · Aug 6, 2023

One of my 4 year old seedlings got moved to a bonsai pot

November 2020

SeanS · Aug 9, 2023

7 trunk clump. Started in September 2022 by threading 7 1 year old seedlings through a washer.

Sep 2022

Today

Original roots removed

Root work done and ready for potting

Tied in

Ready for the season. Intended to be shohin sized

leatherback · Aug 9, 2023

Great Stuff!

SeanS · Aug 9, 2023

Dug one of my bigger RORs. Started with 5 1 year old seedlings last year. I tried to fuse a few of the seedlings during the season which turned out unsuccessful. The spots that I bound with cable ties and rubber tube swelled too much when the ties dug in.

My new plan is to graft new seedlings to the existing roots and use the 2 very low buds that have popped to replace the ugly scarred trunks. I grafted 2 seedlings and plan to do a third this weekend (I’ll put the 3rd seedling in a separate pot that I’ll secure to the big tub.

These 2 seedlings have stuck to the rock beautifully and cut back under into the little cave. I’m trying to graft the 2 sets of roots together to eventually remove the trunk of the right seedling completely.