Thought I'd start a thread on my first and only deciduous tree that I picked up in March this year.
I got this Trident earlier this year for a great price! It had some growth to it but still needed a vast amount of work which was exactly what I was after, perfect for someone like myself to learn on.
^ March this year with my wallet for scale. This photo was the only one I took before the leaves fell. The tree then stayed in this exact spot in full shade until the leaves dropped in Autumn.
After leaf drop it was only being watered approximately once a fortnight while dormant.
^ End of winter trim (possibly August, I nearly left it too late
) I was worried it would bleed as buds were beginning to pop already when I chose to trim but got lucky.It was at this time that the tree was moved to a full sun position. For some silly reason I also chose to wire a couple of branches right before spring - What an idiot I am haha.
^ Initial Spring growth. Extremely compact foliage I think and it grew so darn fast!
It is my first Trident so I don't have anything to compare it to but if they all grow like this then I don't know how people can maintain a lot of them haha.
It is kept in full sun all day which I think contributed to how compact it was and was fertilized from the start of spring every 2 weeks.
^ First thinning out today and I removed around 2/3 of the foliage (I also ripped a few leaves off by accident trying to get to the base of the branches). In hindsight I should have had the growth under control much sooner, but being my first deciduous I didn't expect it to grow that fast.
The little bit of wire that I had put on at the start of spring was removed about a week ago as I noticed it cutting into 2 branches, one of which I removed today.
I'm thoroughly enjoying my first spring with this tree and am keen to work it out. A few of the leaves have burnt, this seems to have reduced the growth rate. I'll consider finding a shadier spot before Summer hits. Now i will look at pinching some of the upper growth for ramification while growing out the new leader and lower branches to get them to thicken.
All comments and advice welcome. I'll take some better photos from this point on. As you can tell some of these aren't the best haha.
Cheers,
Pearcy.
hide the scar left from cutting it down.
Eventually you will want to plant the tree into a bonsai pot. To enhance the feeling of depth and perspective we try to place the trunk of the tree slightly behind the centre line of the pot (except when using regular shapes - hexagon, round, etc). If you've kept even length roots all round you will find yourself hacking thick roots again in order to get the tree to fit into the pot. Far better to do it properly from the start.
