Trunk chop

[rootpuma]

I chopped a Trident back in early April after the leaves hardened off, here we are in June and it still has not pushed new buds! Cambiumb is still green and healthy, anything I can do to help it push out new growth?

 

[SeanS]

Pics? How low did you cut? Are there any nodes below the cut?

 

[Shibui]

A picture would definitely give more clues.
2 months is a fair while for a maple but I have had some take that long. The bigger the chop and the older the wood the longer it usually takes.
Pretty sure it was @SeanS who resorted to grafting a new shoot to save a trident stump.

 

[SeanS]

A picture would definitely give more clues.
2 months is a fair while for a maple but I have had some take that long. The bigger the chop and the older the wood the longer it usually takes.
Pretty sure it was @SeanS who resorted to grafting a new shoot to save a trident stump.

It sure was! My trident thread documents it’s progress

 

[dbonsaiw]

Not much to do now but to nurse it and hope for the best. It is a bit odd for a trident to that. I’ve stopped doing blind chops to JMs for this very reason - I really never got the back budding.

 

[Maiden69]

I second the "how low did you chop" question. Also, how strong was the tree before the chop? Jonas did an experiment with low chopping some trident seedlings and 2 months after the chop they were yet to sprout any new growth.

The right way and wrong way to make major cuts on young maples - Bonsai Tonight

Taking care to identify healthy buds before major cutback can make all the difference.

bonsaitonight.com

 

[rootpuma]

It was about 18" tall and now it's 9". I will try to get a pic after I get back from the golf course.

 

[rootpuma]

Finally got around to getting a few photos. Every time I'm outside I leave my phone inside....I cannot figure out why it will not back bud below the chop.

 

[jandslegate]

I don't want to speak out of turn but isn't it typically ideal to leave some foliage when you do a chop? I know there are some species that can take more aggressive cut backs and I admit I don't have much experience with tridents.

 

[Jrmcmich]

I don't want to speak out of turn but isn't it typically ideal to leave some foliage when you do a chop? I know there are some species that can take more aggressive cut backs and I admit I don't have much experience with tridents.

Great question. Wondering same thing yet when I collected from woods I cut to a stump and there was sufficient energy to produce new buds so not sure correct answer but the few I collected have produced multiple shoots around tree below chop.

 

[jandslegate]

I know Ryan (from Mirai) has said if you're ever going to go big with a cut back collection is the time. It's going to have the greatest energy surplus it will likely ever have at that point.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Odd indeed. Some species need or may benefit from a chop to existing foliage, but a healthy trident can be chopped blind to no foliage and should back bud.

 

[Shibui]

I don't want to speak out of turn but isn't it typically ideal to leave some foliage when you do a chop? I know there are some species that can take more aggressive cut backs and I admit I don't have much experience with tridents.

Trident, and most other deciduous generally cope well with a chop, even well below the foliage. I certainly cut hundreds of tridents as hard and harder than this every year and do not have any problem with them shooting new buds.
I suspect there's something else happening in this case.
There's so much we do not know about the tree before and after pruning.

 

[rockm]

For good backbudding, it's necessary to have very vigorous growth above where you're going to chop--like the more rampant growth the better. All that energy going to and from the leaves to the roots gets interrupted and left with no where to go once the chop happens. That energy signals resting buds in the bark. Tridents tend to back bud very well from bare wood below trunk chops. I'd agree that something else is happening if you're not getting anything.

 

[leatherback]

somehow this tree feels like it might not be trident..

 

[Empty Mountain]

I chopped a Trident back in early April after the leaves hardened off, here we are in June and it still has not pushed new buds! Cambiumb is still green and healthy, anything I can do to help it push out new growth?

Do you have a pic from April when it had leaves? Was it repotted and root pruned this spring?

 

[rootpuma]

No photo before the chop. It was about 24" tall with a lot of leaves. It was fed about a week before the chop. No root pruning. The trunk is still green if I scratch it.