Baby Tridents

[Raging Bull]

About 3 weeks ago I received a small package of trident maples I had bought from Shibui. they were packaged in an excellent manner, bare-rooted with damp packing around the roots. I put them in a small bucket of water for a day and then planted them. No special treatment. There were 30 little sticks of varying sizes which I hope to grow and make a group planting or two. Well, coming from Yackandandah to S.E. Queensland must seem like spring has come early for them, because all except one immediately got busy swelling their little buds, and now they have their first leaves already. Thank you shibui, 29 out of 30 is a great success rate, and perhaps the last one is just a bit slow.

[viniv]

Hi,

I don't have many deciduous trees, and of the deciduous trees I have, I have only had them for a few years.

If the trees are pushing leaves now, energy is being used in order to achieve this. Maybe protect the plants until spring to avoid losing the premature growth. Losing the leaves now may weaken the tree prior to spring. The energy was stored in order for the tree to come out of dormancy and continue growing in spring.

It will be interesting to see how the trees respond to winter next year.

viniv

[melbrackstone]

I bought a stack of shibui's yearlings last year, and they're thriving, even though they came out of dormancy early.

The ones I bought this year have also started throwing leaves out everywhere....

They're pretty tough!

[Raging Bull]

Thanks for the insights, fellow Bonsai Tragics. Here on the Gold Coast near the sea (I live less than 1 Km from the Broadwater) we never get frost, and we've had a mild winter so far, so I hope it stays that way
Cheers, Frank

[shibui]

then planted them. No special treatment.

I hope you severely root pruned these before potting them up
For years I have been flogging this. Now Treeman and Ken and a few others have come on board and strongly pushed roots as the first priority.

Never mind These are trident maples, even up there, they will still be fine with a radical root reduction next year and you will probably have gained enough experience to be comfortable with doing it by then

Good to hear they have appreciated the change of climate. we're expecting -5C tonight so all still very dormant down here and likely to stay the same for another month or 2

Still more of these trident seedlings (as well as other bonsai stock- blatant commercial plug ) available if anyone needs some. PM shibui or email neil@shibuibonsai.com.au

[melbrackstone]

I hope you severely root pruned these before potting them up

I read this last year, and yes, severely root pruned before planting, and they never looked back, with much more beautiful root system this year. Some I planted onto discs as well, the results are quite astonishing!

[Raging Bull]

No, I gave a few of them a light root pruning, but will do so at the next repotting, which is when they will be put into their group plantings. After reading recent posts, maybe I should have been sterner with them . I just wanted to make sure they survived as I have never before bought plants by mail order.
Ah well, live & learn.

[kcpoole]

No, I gave a few of them a light root pruning, but will do so at the next repotting, which is when they will be put into their group plantings. After reading recent posts, maybe I should have been sterner with them . I just wanted to make sure they survived as I have never before bought plants by mail order.
Ah well, live & learn.

No harm in taking it slowly at first, As theya re on a pot / Box they tend to be a little slow the first year anyway,
Repot and root prune hard next year and you will both learn and enjoy at the same time

Ken