Trident Maple - be nice to this one

[It's Kev]

The Chinese call it off the mountain pile. They have stumps of all sizes. Since I have limited space I chose the smallest one they had, cost me CNY36

It turned out to be a bit taller than expected...


I decided to chop the top off, below some roots to support new growth. Then the 3 thick roots at the bottom all separated...


Potted them all up and put them in a semi shady spot, also mulched it up a bit because the tree comes from way up north, so I want to retain a bit of moisture so my climate doesn’t come as a complete shock


Maybe I’ll have 1 tree, maybe I’ll have 4, or maybe I wasted 6 dahlurs. Let’s hope they make it.

 

[Dav4]

I doubt anything below the top will throw any shoots... maples don't sprout from roots. Now would be a good time reduce the number of leaders down to one and wire some movement, if possible, into the remaining one. Once it's growing well, carve that chop scar and seal it.

 

[It's Kev]

@Dav4 i figured I should remove some top shoots if not all, because I didn’t leave a whole lot of roots at the bottom to support all of them. What you reckon? Leave the thickest one?

As for those roots, it’s purely experimental. If they do take, I’ll be happy, but I won’t cry too much if they don’t.

 

[Dav4]

I'd pick a leader that's coming off the base in the best place and angle, and that can be wired for movement.

 

[AlainK]

I doubt anything below the top will throw any shoots... maples don't sprout from roots.

Right. None of my attempts were successful.

 

[It's Kev]

Right. None of my attempts were successful.

Aaannd none of these took either

Anyways, I tried to graft a couple of branches and it seems like it wasn’t a total disaster.

I still have 7 months of warmth left, so as soon as my new first branch thickens up, I wanna focus most of the growth energy on that branch for now.

P.S. I drilled my hole at a slight angle, Will I be able to use the entry side branch as a second branch? I noticed that the leaves have already turned around as if to assume the new growth direction.

 

[It's Kev]

I doubt anything below the top will throw any shoots... maples don't sprout from roots. Now would be a good time reduce the number of leaders down to one and wire some movement, if possible, into the remaining one. Once it's growing well, carve that chop scar and seal it.

I trimmed off all the weaker shoots except for the strongest one, that's gonna supply me with branches to work on my grafting skills. Still haven't done anything to the trunk chop yet, i'll get around to that some other time.

 

[It's Kev]

We don’t get any frost here, but buds leafing out in November still make me worried

 

[Tieball]

Your nice subtropical climate should support continued good growth.

 

[It's Kev]

I want to grow some sacrifice branches that I’ve grafted, should I lop the top off then?

 

[Pitoon]

The Chinese call it off the mountain pile. They have stumps of all sizes. Since I have limited space I chose the smallest one they had, cost me CNY36

It turned out to be a bit taller than expected...
View attachment 227719

I decided to chop the top off, below some roots to support new growth. Then the 3 thick roots at the bottom all separated...
View attachment 227720

Potted them all up and put them in a semi shady spot, also mulched it up a bit because the tree comes from way up north, so I want to retain a bit of moisture so my climate doesn’t come as a complete shock
View attachment 227723

Maybe I’ll have 1 tree, maybe I’ll have 4, or maybe I wasted 6 dahlurs. Let’s hope they make it.

I wonder if you would have grafted a scion onto the root cuttings if it would have took?

 

[It's Kev]

So I’ve been inspecting my graft attempts. Now I’m curious, at the point where my branch entered the main trunk, could I keep that as another branch? I know the buds are backwards now, but if I snip off at the top where the source branch started, what normally happens to these branches? Do I just cut it off at the point where they enter the trunk and let it grow out to graft somewhere else again later?

 

[Shibui]

I'm pretty sure that flow can't reverse so the "in" side would just die back to the trunk unless there were some buds really close to the trunk that were able to tap into the upward flow.
Beside the physical limitations why would you want to create a bar branch? Most of us expend lots of effort to get rid of those because the ultimate result is a thickened area creating reverse taper.

 

[It's Kev]

Beside the physical limitations why would you want to create a bar branch?

Thanks, i never saw the bar branch, my eyes only saw multiple branch options


P.S. i whacked off most of the top growth because i wanna try to focus on my lower branches now

 

[It's Kev]

Still rocking last season’s leaves, and the spring rains are already here, seems like my grafts are doing ok

 

[leatherback]

Looks like you are doing everything right there!