Smoke
Ignore-Amus
In the year 2013 I made a paradigm shift in my thought process about how a maple should look. Even though I was having success with traditional moyogi styled trees it wasn't what I wanted. Look as I could the material was not around. I looked for something I could cut down into the oak tree style I longed for. The problem is there are not many growers, if any, that are producing material for oak type canopies.
I decided that I could do this myself. If I can't find or buy the material I will have to use my expertise with the species to manufacture what I want. Before I get into it, keep in mind that this tree has only five years of training so far and will only continue to get better as time goes by. It is at a point that I feel comfortable to show what is going on.
I started out during the late winter of 2013, my wife would be diagnosed with terminal cancer later that fall. The maple was going to me the trident species. I love the species and it is a joy to work with, while susceptible to fungus very easily it is easily treatable and the rewards far out weigh the negatives. I started with three maples. During this time I had 75 trident maples around the backyard. They were everywhere. These three for many years had been donor plants that I use for grafting on to other tridents.
These three were chosen from the many for size and that they were in an "L" shape. Each had a root system that was one sided and looked goofy. worked great for grafting purposes but on their own each was a loser. I decided to turn them into an ugly swan. You will see later. These tree were about 1/2 inch across at the base.
A closer look at each tree. The club feet of each is quite evident.
Since all the tree were already one sided in the roots department it would not be difficult to put them together. This way I didn't even have to trim away any rootage and wait for the tree to catch up. I could just root prune them and figure out how I would fit them together.
I decided that I could do this myself. If I can't find or buy the material I will have to use my expertise with the species to manufacture what I want. Before I get into it, keep in mind that this tree has only five years of training so far and will only continue to get better as time goes by. It is at a point that I feel comfortable to show what is going on.
I started out during the late winter of 2013, my wife would be diagnosed with terminal cancer later that fall. The maple was going to me the trident species. I love the species and it is a joy to work with, while susceptible to fungus very easily it is easily treatable and the rewards far out weigh the negatives. I started with three maples. During this time I had 75 trident maples around the backyard. They were everywhere. These three for many years had been donor plants that I use for grafting on to other tridents.
These three were chosen from the many for size and that they were in an "L" shape. Each had a root system that was one sided and looked goofy. worked great for grafting purposes but on their own each was a loser. I decided to turn them into an ugly swan. You will see later. These tree were about 1/2 inch across at the base.
A closer look at each tree. The club feet of each is quite evident.
Since all the tree were already one sided in the roots department it would not be difficult to put them together. This way I didn't even have to trim away any rootage and wait for the tree to catch up. I could just root prune them and figure out how I would fit them together.
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