repotting

[Shills]

Hi there,

I have a small trident maple (see past posts of mine). I always planned to move it to a growing pot so I could give it some size and develop the Nebari.

Being in Sydney Eastern. I was wondering if anyone new when was the best time to repot here from experience. I know it is important to see the bud swelling as an indicator, supposedly, but I wouldn't mind some input from experienced people who are in tune to the seasons here, In Eastern Sydney.

Thanks.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi Shills,

I have never lived in Sydney. But down here in Victoria, I have started some trident maples and maples as early as mid June. But I have done doing them for a long times.

In the past, I have repotted tridents when the buds started to swell too.

(I am not sure if members are hunting down your past posts. Perhaps you continue from one of them? Or provided links to them: please go the address bar, copy the address, and paste it into your posts.)

Best regards.

[hugh grant]

i live just north of sydney on the central coast and i repotted my trident maples today so id be cracking at it now. hope that helps.

Hugh

[kcpoole]

Check out our wiki for when to do what to our trees
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... hould_I%3F
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... h_month%3F

These I reckon will become 2 of the most important pages of all our wiki. I refer to them constantly

Ken

[Shills]

In case anyone has been trying to find my old pics:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=7747

[Shills]

Hey.

Well, I planned on repotting it tomorrow (sunday) but now (Sat morning), I can see that a number of the buds have opened. Does this mean I've missed my chance to repot, and that I'll have to wait till next winter??

Thanks.

[shibui]

That depends on how advanced the buds are and the number of buds on the tree. Your tree is quite young and has few shoots It should be ok to repot providing the leaves are not actually open yet. If it were an old, adavanced tree I would be more careful but yours is young and resilient.
It also depends on how much root you intend to take off - If buds are just opening you could rootprune lightly. I'm guessing that you are a beginner so you are not likely to rootprune hard enough to cause problems anyway.
The shoots should also be trimmed back a fair bit so this will probably remove most of the buds that are opening.
good aftercare can make a big difference - water it in well and put it in a protected area with lots of light for the first week.

[Ash Barns]

Hey.

Well, I planned on repotting it tomorrow (sunday) but now (Sat morning), I can see that a number of the buds have opened. Does this mean I've missed my chance to repot, and that I'll have to wait till next winter??

Thanks.

If you miss that window of opportunity all is not lost. Sometimes we get caught up with having lots of trees to repot usually at the same time so if the tree has gone through leaf burst wait a couple of weeks for the leaves to 'harden' off then repot. They don't miss a beat I have found.

[Shills]

Thanks for speedy replies.

Shibui says: 'The shoots should also be trimmed back a fair bit so this will probably remove most of the buds that are opening.'

What do you mean by that? I didn't know I was supposed to remove shoots at some stage

And just to clarify. I am not intending on doing too much root pruning. The main aim is to simply put it in a growing pot.

Thanks.

[Craig]

Shibui says: 'The shoots should also be trimmed back a fair bit so this will probably remove most of the buds that are opening.'

What do you mean by that? I didn't know I was supposed to remove shoots at some stage

What he is saying is for you to cut/trim back the branches slightly to remove the buds that have opened and repot it now, ( you could rub them off instead of cutting back) i personally would just repot it now without removing anything
Can we see a picture of the opening shoots ?

[shibui]

Craig has said it - the branches on your tree are quite long and leggy and really need shortening back to encourage more buds to grow further down the branches. Repeated cutting back will develop ramification, smaller leaves and a more realistic looking tree.

On tridents it is usually the buds at the tips of branches that start to grow first so if you prune the tree a bit you won't have opening buds..... then repot, no problems.....

As you are only going to pot it up and not remove much root it doesn't matter if the buds have started to open.... but you should probably have a look at the recent thread on nebari. Proper pruning of roots to develop good rootsystem is just as important as developing a good top - but that might have to wait until next year now.

[Scott Roxburgh]

As you are only going to pot it up and not remove much root it doesn't matter if the buds have started to open.... but you should probably have a look at the recent thread on nebari. Proper pruning of roots to develop good rootsystem is just as important as developing a good top - but that might have to wait until next year now.

I agree, but to complicate things further I have always gone by the colour of the leaves.

If a trident's leaves still have the reddish colour in them I will repot, if there is no red in the leaves, than no repotting.

[Shills]

Well, the bonsai is in a larger pot. I read that about three inches of extra room in all directions is the right step-up. I even put a cd an inch under the roots to hopefully encourage sideways growth.

Shibui. You suggested I prune it back a bit. But because I'm currently just trying to increase the plants size, is that necessary? Will pruning it back discourage trunk growth. I guess it would look better pruned, but I don't want to do that if it will slow growth.

Thanks.

[shibui]

Ok. Cutting the branches back might slow down growth a bit but will increase ramification and branch movement close to the trunk. The problem is you can't get everything at once. You need to make the decision as you can see the tree and know what you want to achieve.

Very interested to hear that Scott repots up to leaves turning green, though I'm not really surprised to hear this about Trident maples... Will have to do some trials this year. I think there is still more lattitude in timing of bonsai tasks than conventional wisdom would have us believe..... How far can we go?

[Luke308]

I have a "mallsai" trident maple that my gf gave me last Xmas, I have just taken it out of its pot today and put it in a foam corn box from the fruit and veg store. It had a lot of little roots spouted highr up the trunk which gave me the idea to plant it as a slanting style maple. I also root pruned about 60-70%. I hope it works out ok.