AusBonsai

I bought this Trident Maple from Shibui 1 year ago and have repotted it today. I did some work on refining the scars, a prune, root prune and light wiring.

It’s such great stock and am hoping to get some branches where I want them this year, especially in the gap on the back. Probably not the right pot, but that pot has never had a tree in it and Shibui’s tree deserves an excellent pot for now, until I find something more suitable.

Original stock:


Roots:


Front:


Right side:


Back:


Left side:

Hi Beano, that's a good looking maple.
I received a similar one also about a year ago from Neil.
You and I seem to be at a similar stage in our bonsai travels so this may or may not be of help.
My first move was to get it into a bonsai pot immediately !! but resisted the urge somehow
Instead it went into a wide plastic tray type training pot to grow more taper into the lower trunk.
After seeing the growth it put on I'm stoked I went that way because taper has improved a little already
This season I'll do what I should have done last year and place it on a shady garden bed so roots can escape the tray.
IMHO all good maples have trunk taper and developed nebari. However that means going the slow road, loads of time.
Then again I do have a thing for nice wide tapering butts If your happy with the trunk then just power on.
cheers

Yeah I put mine in a basket pot but never put it into the ground. I’m pretty happy with the trunk I just need some more branches in the right spot and the scars to heal a bit. It might need some branch grafts but we’ll see what I get this year. There’s a back branch to the side of where I want it but it didn’t take off this year. If I can get it to grow more then it would do the trick for the main bare area on the back.

I like that pot! Nice combo, I reckon.

It’s a great pot - I got it off eBay years ago. It’s been vacant ever since waiting for the “perfect tree”. I can’t let it be vacant another year.

Gees, I didn’t notice that. I mean I did notice but not to that extent. Maybe it’s a dead patch

scratch test at the back? and personally i like the concept of tree bowing forward towards the viewer, which is possible with slight angle change when repoting

i might have to pick up more of shibui stock one day

thanks for sharing!

Hi Banong. Yes, I think I intended it to lean forward more but over time after the repot it’s shifted a little. I’ll change it when it’s next time for a repot.

The post is missing from this thread, but a little while back after repotting, the tree was very slow to push buds. It seems almost all my planned secondary branches have died back, some to the primary and some to the trunk. The top has died back as well unfortunately so I’ll have to await a new option, which may lean more forward. I have some shoots from the original branches but not all of them. Basically everything I wired is dead so I’m just waiting for the new growth to harden and I’ll have a better look what options I have. As it stands, it’s not hopeless, and I should be able to get a decent tree again eventually. Sorry to shibui for wrecking your stock! I love this tree and am sad I did something wrong to it. I think that when I tried to neaten up some scars I must have gone too far and at the wrong time of year.

No need for apology. It may not actually be something you did. There is a fungal infection that seems to affect maples. Most will survive as yours has but some are affected even worse. My guess is that it gets in through pruning cuts and may even be spread on our cutting tools.
I think it may be worth sanitizing tools before working on each new tree.

Thanks Neil

Well, the whole top died and all the branches. But it’s bounced back and even though it is in the pot now, a new leader has declared itself quickly, and branch placement for now seems acceptable. I can’t believe how fast it’s grown in the pot.

I’m pretty convinced all this happened because I didn’t use the cut putty correctly. I just wacked it on, covering the edges of fresh cuts and cleaned up scars, without sealing it first. Nearly all the trees I tried the cut putty on have deteriorated, so I’ve now removed it from all of them and gone back to the metal tube Japanese cut paste.

would now be a great time to graft (approach) the other branches down to where you would like ? or is it to late in the season?

Hi Beano,

First I’ve read this thread and I can feel your disappointment as the tree struggled. From the initial high of buying the tree and wanting to use your quality pot too ... it seems things took a turn for the worse but now things are on the up. Best of luck- I hope it all continues to improve from this point. [THUMBS UP SIGN]

Cheers,

M


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I saw a vudeo and ill post a link to it later but basically if u cut maples leave some space coz they tend to die back a little.

I’ve repotted this already, the start of my repotting work this year. Managed to snap 2 branches this time!! At least the first branch managed to survive my clumsyness this year after slipping on the pot and snapping it off at last years repot. It had good root growth again this year.






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