AusBonsai

Last night I did some work on a trident I purchased from Shibui over Christmas that I hadn't yet touched. I thought I had a photo of it naked pre work, but unfortunately I was mistaken. Here's the original photos in leaf to give you some idea.







It had 2 trunks coming from a Junction near the top of the rock. I was considering keeping both but in the end, chose to remove the thicker rear one as it had a bit of a straight section. Where the two trunks had met there was a slight bulge, after removing the trunk I also removed some of the bulge so it heals over well.



Here is the finished initial styling. To give you some idea of scale it is in a 300mm orchid pot. I'll feed it up well this season and try thicken up a leader. Here's to hoping I can get a bud to pop in the top right, I kept a backup leader just in case.



Here's a quick virt of what the final tree structure may look like. I'll keep the foliage on the left short to expose the rock and the right will droop down slightly. Hopefully over the next couple of seasons I can get the structure going while keeping the apex relatively low due to the roots being so long.



Hope you all like it's new plan.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Hi Pearcy
Very nice ROR and your direction looks real good to me,keep us posted please mate.

cheers Anthony

Good vision there Pearcy, Something a bit special about R.O.R. Hope it comes together for you. Cheers John.

Thanks Anthony and John. I think if I can get that top right bud to pop it should be fairly easy achieving the plan I'm aiming for with a rough foliage shape of what I have depicted in the virt.

I also decided to keep the second trunk and plant it as a bit of an experiment as well. It was cut about 48 hours before I got around to planting it due to being tied up on nightshift. In the time it sat I had a wet tissue wrapped around the cut base to try keep up some moisture.





It was planted in propagating sand after having some rooting gel put on it, before being thrown in a shady area. It will not bother me in the slightest if it doesn't survive, just thought I'd see what it would do.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Good luck with this.

Pearcy001 wrote:
I also decided to keep the second trunk and plant it as a bit of an experiment as well. It was cut about 48 hours before I got around to planting it due to being tied up on nightshift. In the time it sat I had a wet tissue wrapped around the cut base to try keep up some moisture.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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That's funny - I did almost exactly the same thing with some trident bits I had left after a chop. Mine were left to soak in Seasol for a couple of days (mainly because I forgot!). Mine are also just in whatever potting mix was there, nothing fancy at all. I dunno what will happen, I kept both leaders in case - waste not want not!
We'll see how they go....

This one got a root prune and repot the other night. Safe to say it is tiring holding up a large rock for a long time haha. I could have chopped alot more roots off but I didn't want it to lose grip of the rock at all. Maybe next year...





Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Hi everyone, I'm seeking some advice if I may.

I'm attempting to continue the direction shown in my virt, but struggling to get the desired bud to pop still. The bud has begun to become active twice now, then stopped due to stronger branches forming and taking over.

I have just returned from 2 months overseas travel after trimming the tree right down before leaving, but the bud has been taken over once again while I was away.

Now that I'm back I am in a position where I can show it a little more constant attention.

I don't believe it would be a problem but is it too late in the season to be cutting all the foliage off once again, while rubbing off buds for a couple weeks in order to redirect the energy to the preferred leader?

The weather forecast for the next week or so appears to be dry, around the high 20's with no rain and possibly one day in the mid 30's.

I was planning to cut off all branching and then continuing to rub off any buds that may form, in order to direct all the energy to the new leader until it has grown enough to strengthen. Some of the new branches that will need to be removed are up to 1cm thick.

If anyone has a better idea for me please feel free to share.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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I think it should be still Ok to get rid of unwanted branches or defoliate. There is still plenty of growing season left for tridents.
At the very least cut off all competing shoots and keep them lower than the one you want to grow.

shibui wrote:I think it should be still Ok to get rid of unwanted branches or defoliate. There is still plenty of growing season left for tridents.
At the very least cut off all competing shoots and keep them lower than the one you want to grow.

Thanks for the confirmation Neil

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So the bud that I was after never extended [ANGRY FACE]. Then to make things worse it died back (you can see it in the first photo) so I was forced to cut back to live wood and sealed the cut.

Additionally I did an extensive amount of root work this time around (last time I was worried the rock would fall out haha).

Internode length for this one was far too vigorous last season and I found myself constantly cutting off growth. This year I plan to barely fertalise this one.

Essentially starting from scratch with this one..

Cheers,
Pearcy.



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Dead. Deceased. Kaput. The heat wave we had over summer cooked this one from the inside out.

The mixture of the black pot combined with a large rock drew in all the sun's heat.

I leave all my trees in full sun throughout Summer, so I only have myself to blame.

But hey, now I'm left with one expensive rock to re-use!

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Wow that sucks Pearcy.
It was a great base, hopefully you can find something just as interesting to combine with your rock.
Just wondering how your cutting of the "other" trunk worked out. Mine shot growth and looked OK for quite a while.... then dead. When I removed it there was callous but no roots at all, all the growth obviously from residual energy in the trunk - must've lasted at least a year on that I think!?!
Best of luck with whatever you plant on your rock...

Pearcy001 wrote:Dead. Deceased. Kaput. The heat wave we had over summer cooked this one from the inside out.

The mixture of the black pot combined with a large rock drew in all the sun's heat.

I leave all my trees in full sun throughout Summer, so I only have myself to blame.

But hey, now I'm left with one expensive rock to re-use!

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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And the heat isent over yet!!!!! final day of this this sunday 35-37 with a warm/hot wind expected through western , northern , NE vic . The cold and the WET cannot come soon enough .

That's a real shame Pearcy, but you still have a nice rock!

It highlights a problem with ROR in extreme heat - rocks left in the sun trap and radiate heat that can cook roots quickly. Like you, most of my trees are also left in full sun over summer but rocks that stick out get covered in a rag or hessian, just enough to keep direct sun off. It doesn't look pretty but it does the job.

Matt.