AusBonsai

Species: Acer buergerianum (Trident Maple)
Height: 40cm
Source: Ray Nesci's
Cost: $48

I've let this one sit doing nothing for the last 3 months in preparation for springtime. Now that spring's nearly here, I've done a super graft/layer session to kick ahead with turning it shohin. First things first, I marked out where I was going to make the cuts for both the roots and trunk. The plan is to layer and cut back big roots, and eventually cut the whole top trunk off. The whole reason I chose this tree is because of the taper that it has from the root flare, so everything above where it stops tapering is going to go sometime next year.
I scrapped as much top soil as I could and found that there was more of a root system below the roots I was going to use. To try and develop this tree as quickly as possible, I'm going to keep the lower root system while I develop the top root system. I've covered the lower root system with wire mesh so that I can do root work on the top one next autumn. Around the back where there is no root system, I've put a layer in that will hopefully give me some roots (fingers crossed).
To get branches developing as quickly as I possibly can, I'm going to graft as much as I can to develop the branching by next year. Using trident cuttings that I've been growing for the last year I've grafted in the primary branch. The grafts were done by carving out a channel the same size as the cutting, deep enough that the trunk will grow over the cutting without leaving much of a scar. And then secured in place with map pins recommended to me by my buddy Jow. At $2.80 for a pack of 60 from Daiso, they are the best friend you can have for grafting.
To try and get the trunk looking a bit more natural after the chop is done I've carved out about half of the trunk above where the second branch will go. Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more taper going up the trunk than a flat cut would get.
After all the work was done the top was potted in 50% Pumice and % Akadama (you can't see any akadama in the photo because I like to give an additional top dressing of just pumice). Some peat moss was also sprinkled around the cut roots and layered bits as well.

Yep.... needless to say this is worth watching ...
I wouldn't even think of doing half of that let alone have the guts to actually go ahead with it. I am impressed with the vision and your explanation of what you are planning ... and I look forward to seeing this advance. Awesome ...

Hi Evan,

Great post, really well explained. I can't wait to see how this turns out and how you get there.

Matt.

Ryceman3 wrote:Yep.... needless to say this is worth watching ...
I wouldn't even think of doing half of that let alone have the guts to actually go ahead with it. I am impressed with the vision and your explanation of what you are planning ... and I look forward to seeing this advance. Awesome ...

Couldn't agree more solid effort .. big balls haha !!
As a question but when I looked at the 1st pic i thought the roots at the base looked awesome to begin with .
Beside the lack of root spread at the back . What is the purpose behind getting rid of them ?
A newb with doing any of this kind of work does it encourage any growth besides the roots or is it just because you can and will end up with a nicer more even root base ?
Cheers and good luck

dibly_w wrote:Beside the lack of root spread at the back . What is the purpose behind getting rid of them ?
A newb with doing any of this kind of work does it encourage any growth besides the roots or is it just because you can and will end up with a nicer more even root base?

Entirely the second reason. Those original roots were too long and tentacle-like for my liking.

Yeah cool . Thanks for sharing , looking forward to its development.how long do you thik before you see some good results with the new roots mate ?

Hopefully in a month or two. Basically when everything starts kicking off for spring.

I've let this tree do nothing but go for the past few months in preparation for more major graft and root work next year. You can already see the amount of growth its put on with how much it's callused over. The graft union is also beginning to look good. I'd left some of the top branches get long with the intention of using them for grafts down low. They had gotten too thick and weren't long enough to reach where I needed them, so I cut them off. While doing this pruning I noticed that the top of this tree would make an alright shohin, so I decided to layer it. I decided to also layer this lower branch so I can use it to do some grafting later next year. Again the long whips weren't flexible/long enough to get where I wanted them.

Lots of new growth this summer. Big scars are healing over good. Plenty of new roots. Graft has taken. The layer I took at the end of last year didn't put out any roots. So I've cut it back and layered it again. I'll try to do a lot more grafts in the next few weeks.

Just a polite on this thread Evan. Was hoping you might be able to give an update?