Tridents Galore

[alpineart]

Hi mjhc , mate it all starts with a seedling in most cases . If it can't be collected it must be grown .

Cheers .Alpine

[mjhc]

I just like the fact you can see how each has developed over the 5 years. I respect the effort in a big way and I like the fact that you've given it a shot. That's why I'm going to put some in the yard, just under trees here and there. Make the most of every space I have - because you have nothing to lose but a couple of hours in the yard. Plenty of worse places to waste some time. From your experience, is there anything you'd recommend to try and / or steer clear of?

[alpineart]

Hi mjhc, Trident Maples and Chinese Elms Crab Apples are 3 I can recommend for starters . Take a look in the Wiki section for more info on starter material . Try to grow in the open area where roots don't have to compete with larger tree's and full sun is available . Planting in large pots or trays , cut down plastic pots also make good grow pots as does Polystyrene boxes . There is plenty of info in the Wiki as I said .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Its time for the annual training trim and with 180mm of glorious rain here in less than a fortnight timing couldn't be better .

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These jump started last week with 130mm of rain falling and another 50mm in the last 24 hours to top it off .Going

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going

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gone

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,

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I managed to trim 100 of these various aged and configured Tridents in around 30 minutes

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.

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Usually spending a good day to sort this many out , a new toy made light of the task

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for $70 it saved a days work . These will now be left to run for another 4-6 weeks then hit again and trimmed with the hedge trimmer and then followed up by selective hand trim .In my spare time I will get around to shearing the front grow beds in the same fashion along with the Horn beams , Crab apples , Chinese Elms and Japanese Maples .

Cheers Alpineart

[wrcmad]

Its time for the annual training trim ..... I managed to trim 100 of these various aged and configured Tridents in around 30 minutes. .... These will now be left to run for another 4-6 weeks then hit again and trimmed with the hedge trimmer and then followed up by selective hand trim .In my spare time I will get around to shearing the front grow beds in the same fashion along with the Horn beams , Crab apples , Chinese Elms and Japanese Maples .

Cheers Alpineart

Just wondering why you shear them?
I have tridents in growing beds, and just let them run rampant for the full growing season for maximum thickening.
I chop and selectively prune roots once per year at the end of winter.

[alpineart]

Hi wrcmad, mate to let these run rampant for the full season there would be many large scare left behind after trimming , die back would certainly occur lower down the trunks due to lack of light , fungal diseases would have a good chance to flourish in the thick congested growth and lack of air flow would also add to the problems . All my grow bed stock is grown with branch placement set from the beginning with numerous options , these have 30mm to 150mm trunks thickening is not required here , I dont particularly like sumo's,

I dont grow and chop back at the end of the season , I grow , trim and grow , pinch and grow through the entire season developing the Bonsai in the ground unless they are the collected few tree's i have here . I don;t grow stumps with shoots I grow trunks with developing/developed refined branches in the ground from the first year ,many may disagree, may take longer but who's in a hurry .

The hedge trimmer is the easiest and quickest method to knock the rampant growth off in a controlled manner , I have used an large electric machine in the past however I burnt it out , replaced it with a petrol model but its too heavy . This little bugger cuts 8mm material very well and is more manageable than hand hedge trimmers and more delicate to control around the tree line . With close to 1000 trainers in the ground its a time saving device that has earned its purchase price already .

Each to his own , but I'll stick to mine .

Cheers Alpine

[wrcmad]

Thanks alpine.
Always curious about other's methods.

[kcpoole]

Well Done Alpine, I assume the Wire is to keep out the dogs?
Walter Pall uses the same method to rim trees early in the season too.

Ken

[alpineart]

Hi wrcmad , I dont really follow the norm here thats for sure

Hi kc , mate the wire is to keep the dog {Bear} in , the kangaroos and kids out , and hopefully trip up the thieves that want to pinch my tree's . As for the trimmer If Walter uses one then it must save a lot of time . I know how long it takes to trim with leaf/branch cutters just to find the right shoot to leave or remove .

This little trimmer exposes the branches and shoots without damage in a matter of seconds , working from the apex down and trimming back to 2-3 leaf nodes is like shearing sheep . Its easy if you know how , as with most things I learned many years ago ,applying them as needed or adapting them to suit ..

Cheers Guys . Alpine

[alpineart]

These 2 grow beds got a serious work over with branch cutters as the were a little out of control .

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Some good material in here and some very shabby stuff as well .

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As a good mate says every faults a feature and these all have different character a plenty , still plenty of stubs to remove but I had obligations to an up and coming Cricketer so I only managed 4 hours on these . Some nice branch placement has began on the smaller material , other need years of growth to actually fuse together properly .

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The slaters are a bloody menace in the large trunks killing off the smaller whips and loosening the framework allowing the trunks to grow and not continue to fuse properly .These few will need rewiring/compressing and plenty more growth .I have located a product from Richgro called "Slater Killa" and will sprinkle the granules around the bases today , here's hoping it works .I will tackle the other 3 trident grow beds in the coming days , Sorry about the side on pics they were rotated during re-sizing .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

Another grow bed

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now selectively cleared revealing some nice specimens for the future .This ROR is something different

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Off with its head now this was the plan last season but it didn't happen successfully

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a group planting

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twin trunk layered off and ground planted

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larger trunk layered off and ground planted

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a couple of forests /groups

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various plaited /twisted fused trunks

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All in a days work or should I say my RDO . I did manage to tackle the 3 other grow beds of Japanese Maples , Crab Apples and Hornbeams , but the ozito was used as there was too many and time was short .

Cheers Alpineart

[Jarad]

Autumn at your place would be amazing! But then also a right pain in the arse to clean up all the leaves.

[Steve B]

Some very nice trunks lurking under all that foliage Alpine! Must have been a bit like a kid on Christmas morning - ripping off the wrapping to see what goodies you had underneath.

[Phoenix238]

Was just wondering myself what you do with all the leaves afterwards

Wish I could have grow beds like these, the results are fantastic. Keep up the great work!

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[alpineart]

Autumn at your place would be amazing! But then also a right pain in the arse to clean up all the leaves.

Hi Jarad . no right pain in the arse at all , they simply fall off into the grow beds and compost over time . Summer is a bigger pain with the gum tree's in the street dropping leaves and filling gutters up , take more time to clean them up than a few leaves off bonsai beds which deal with themselves .They are trimmed regularly so its like a miniture garden of tree's not full size landscape tree's .

Cheers Alpine