Three Tridents - Nursery Stock

[BirchMan]

Hi All,

Yesterday I grabbed these three big guys for $150. If I wasn't so impatient I'd have waited til late winter but now I've gotta keep them happy til planting time. As with a lot of advanced nursery stock they're totally root bound but I consider it a decent deal. 45L bags and about 8 or 9 feet tall.

These will go in a grow bed in the late winter where I'll enjoy them as garden trees for a couple of years. Probably want to increase the caliper by another half or so on all three before chopping. Despite their size it'll still be a long journey but I quite enjoy growing stock out. Has anyone had much experience working with deciduous nursery trees, particularly sorting out the roots?

Cheers

[bonsaisensation]

hi birchman
I'd cut them back now to where I can see internodes lower down and see what kind of back shoots pop up then wire a new leader to continue the trunkline. Then wait until late winter to properly root prune them( I have a video tutorial on my website if you are unsure) then into your grow bed.

If you leave everything to grow on as it, you'll get more trunk girth but by the time you cut it down, you'd need to allow your new leader more time to run to thicken and transition better into the better taper. I'd hate for you to just get a bigger stick in 2-3 years time and as far as I have seen they rarely turn out to be any good.


Regards



Tien

[shibui]

Sorry to rain on your parade but I heartily agree with Tien.
These will make great garden shade trees but will take ages to make even a second rate bonsai - if they ever become even mediocre.
Bonsai and particularly tridents need taper - these have none. You may be able to cut and grow them to build a trunk with taper and nebari but in my experience it takes ages and many just do not work out as you hoped. it will be far quicker to start with something small and grow it for bonsai and you're more likely to get a better result.
If you do want to go on with these as bonsai you will certainly learn a lot about developing trunks and growing bonsai, even if you don't end up with a show stopping specimen.

[kcpoole]

It takes just as long to make a large tree into a bonsai, as it does to grow a small tree into a bonsai

[matlea]

What about air layering and then each into the ground? ... Still a bit of time involved