Field grown trident shibui style.

[shibui]

Here’s a quick pictorial tutorial on how I dig and prune trident maples from the grow beds.
Remember there are always other ways to develop bonsai. This is just a few of the ways I’ve come up with that seem to work well for me.

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I start by digging round the trunk to lift the root ball. In this case digging is relatively easy as I’ve previously dug and root pruned this tree each winter promoting a mass of finer, easily chopped roots.

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Shake/scrape off as much soil as will come away without too much damage to the roots.
I then trim the longer roots roughly to see what’s there.

Take a close look at this pic to see the typical response to root pruning. All those smaller roots are growing from the ends of roots I cut last winter. More than 90% of new roots will grow from the ends of cut roots so I’ve found it best to cut roots quite short where possible.
This trident has a great root flare from the base of the trunk. The Japanese term for root spread from the trunk is ‘Nebari’

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And here’s part of the reason for that great root flare.
Originally a trident seedling was threaded through the hole on this piece of sheet aluminium. As the trunk thickened circulation was restricted. The tree responds by growing new roots just above the metal collar. Regular root pruning since then has promoted more and more lateral roots all at the same level. Many of those roots have now fused into the buttress base on this trident.

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Now the metal plate has done its work it is time to remove it and finish the root pruning. Check out that flat base!

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I finish up by pruning the trunk and branches.
Previous pruning has promoted lots of upright branches. Each of those branches contributes to trunk thickening but, as they are spread out along the trunk, multiple branches also add taper to the trunk. In addition the smaller size of each of these leaves smaller scars that will heal far quicker than if we had one single, larger trunk to chop.

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I choose which parts to remove and which to leave to give me the most appealing trunk line with good taper.

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Many of the remaining branch stumps will also be removed in future years as they are likely to be too thick and inappropriate angles for good branching on the final bonsai. For now they can stay and help grow more new roots and heal up the larger cuts I’ve made this time.

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Finally, I heel the tree back into damp soil until I have time to decide whether to pot up or return this one to the grow beds for further growth.
 

[BonsaiBobbie]

Great explanation and pictures

[EdwardH]

Thanks for the post.

I got a lot from the pics and explanations

Cheers

Edward

[jessepap]

Really interesting seeing the process unfold. thanks for sharing.

[jofi]

Great article