Trident Maple Repot

[badabing888]

Hi Guys,

I've had this trident sitting around for awhile in some bad soil , so it was time to give it a little root work and a good repotting. I gave the roots a fair cut back but im in two minds as to how farther i should have gone.

I placed it upon a tile to help radial root growth

BUT! Im a bit confused and some of the roots that appears crossing have just formed into what now could be consider the root mound / larger flared trunk.

I'll prob have to wait until next year to do any other root work but a way forward in the future would be good.

Before


Out of pot after some root work




Repotted



Regards

Daniel

 

[Eric Group]

Some of those surface roots are just too long... The roots that are fusing can be a good thing, but on this tree it looks kind of odd. It seems like the separate after leaving the trunk, then fuse farther out. Not a great look. Hard tot ell from pics, but maybe you could cut them off right before the point where they fuse and encourage some roots to grow from where it is cut to get something a bit more normal looking?

The really long ones need to be shortened though, and the fork in the trunk is a concern to me. I would pick one side to keep and remove the other if it was my tree...

 

[davetree]

I would ground layer it. You could have some very nice roots in a year.

 

[raydomz]

I would ground layer it. You could have some very nice roots in a year.

This was my go-to response to this thread but I also think it could be an interesting experiment in approach grafting new surface roots.

But davetree is right, new surface roots from an air layer would come quick.

 

[papymandarin]

and if you want this nebari to evolve and improve you should keep it completely buried underground, nebari improvement implies the growth of new roots close to trunk so you can cut back the old ugly ones back, and new roots will not grow if your nebari is above ground!

 

[Q-Bonsai]

The best thing about tridents is that they can tolerate a lot.

If it were my tree, I would cut off the problem area, but not cut it entirely off. Put some root hormone over it and bury it. I'd do the same for the long leggy roots as well. Problem areas won't grow themselves away, they will just get bigger and uglier.

As for the areas completely void of nebari, you can approach graft a whip or a strong root to the base of the trunk.

The entire base should be buried for at least two more years as you do a series of grafts and cuts to develop the nebari.

Depending on how often you can water, repot in the driest mix possible. If everything grows as planned, I wouldn't repot for 2 years to allow the roots to grow undisturbed. However, if grafts don't take or the cuts don't produce new roots at the cut site, you may need to do it again.

 

[badabing888]

Thanks for the ideas guys. awesome!

what im thinking i may do is lift it again and do as per the attached pic.

remove the exceptionally long roots as there is a decent radiating one under it.

but where ive big drawn circle and question mark is , is it safe / possible just to cut that right back bury and let it grow for an extended period of time ?





The other side is actually okay and i was planning on grafting to fill the one real gap that's present.

@papymandarin yeps i always bury it a fair bit this was just for the sake of the photo

@Eric Group yeps im actually air laying above the fork once that takes and ill cut it off and cut back to only have 1 leader at that point.

 

[Q-Bonsai]

Thanks for the ideas guys. awesome!

what im thinking i may do is lift it again and do as per the attached pic.

remove the exceptionally long roots as there is a decent radiating one under it.

but where ive big drawn circle and question mark is , is it safe / possible just to cut that right back bury and let it grow for an extended period of time ?


View attachment 59873


The other side is actually okay and i was planning on grafting to fill the one real gap that's present.

@papymandarin yeps i always bury it a fair bit this was just for the sake of the photo

@Eric Group yeps im actually air laying above the fork once that takes and ill cut it off and cut back to only have 1 leader at that point.

Yes, you're ok to cut the circled area. Tridents are very durable trees. Just apply some rooting hormone to assist them. When you make the cuts, make sure they are facing down so when the new roots grow you'll get a nice smooth transition.

 

[AlexHorton]

Hormones that might help

A local nursery mentioned to me to use Super Thrive when the plant is stressed. So.. when I take maples and work them into bonsai like this, I have a tray with water with the proper amount of super thrive. After I cut back the roots, I soak the maple in the super thrive for a little bit. It gives the plants micronutrients and hormones to make it grow back. Vitamin B supplements or straight Kelp can help the maple when it is stressed when you cut it back too

 

[edprocoat]

A local nursery mentioned to me to use Super Thrive when the plant is stressed. So.. when I take maples and work them into bonsai like this, I have a tray with water with the proper amount of super thrive. After I cut back the roots, I soak the maple in the super thrive for a little bit. It gives the plants micronutrients and hormones to make it grow back. Vitamin B supplements or straight Kelp can help the maple when it is stressed when you cut it back too

Faster than a speeding bullet ! Able to leap tall women in a single bound ... SUPERTHRIVE !!!

ed

 

[badabing888]

Thanks for all the opinions.
i ended up getting rid of all the long long roots (cutting them down) that i had marked and left the circled section. I'll target this next year once its recovered from a total soil change and some heavy root work. It mostly likely would have survived but this is a longer term project so there is no rush on it.

@alexhorton thanks i do something similar using a product called seasol (basically seaweed mix) i place the root mass into the mix for 30 minutes or so before repotting and then water using the same mix it seems to work really well.

hopefully it powers on from here and u can cut hard again next year and will be closer to where it needs to be!

thanks very much all