AusBonsai

Gday folks!

A bit under the weather here, so I thought I'd start a thread on yet another of my Tridents "in progress". This one came from Sertel's Nursery in Doreen in mid-2008, and cost me the princely sum of $20. I chose this over their many other stock Tridents as it had a little bit of taper and the slight possibility of basal flare.
I had always intended to create at least two trees by layering the top and chopping the bottom. Of course, time ran out on me, and all I did was to savagely chop the roots and pot into a tub, where it would sit, neglected for two years. (Of course it suffered from my trademark lower-trunk-sunburn-dieback... ) As this seems to be the time for working Tridents, I thought I'd dig it up the other day to see what was going on under the soil...
As you can see, there was really very little nebari present before the initial root-prune, especially on the side which was dominated by a single, massively thick root. Even chopping that root hard had done very little to improve its appearance. You can see from the underside exactly how much root mass was removed back in 2008 (the lighter circle indicates roughly where there is another chop present):
So, the first thing to address is the improvement of the roots. This would begin by further cutting back the thick tap roots:
That done, it still has done little to actively improve the root flare or the tree generally:
More to follow...

Thanks.

Fly.

Hi Fly, I can see where it's heading and love to see more of the progress. It's good to see that not everyone does the hard-chop.
thanks for sharing.
DK

Tooth picks, tooth picks, tooth picks!! Woooooooo!

Sorry.

Interesting material, please do keep us updated.

kvan64 wrote:It's good to see that not everyone does the hard-chop.

Gday KVan!

I haven't made "the hard-chop"...

Suppose I took a handful of AlpineArt's Trident seedlings and started to screw them to - and through - the trunk...
...going all the way around the tree until no point was rootless.
Then, what if I arranged the little stalks about the trunk in a gentle swirl and affixed them into place using tightly wound twine?
If I did the above, the obvious thing to do would be to notch the bark higher on the trunk, insert the whips and screw them into place, including a bit of shiny wire for looks... Wouldn't it?
One would imagine that after such fiddling, it would be wise to get the ridiculous arrangement into some soil in a stupid looking pot. And perhaps a second go round with even thicker twine, applied very firmly, I would imagine...
But what would one do next?..

Cross ones fingers? Wait?

I wasn't saying anything until I saw the next lot of pictures You always find a way to make the job so intricate.
I can't wait to see what you do with better material

shibui wrote:Cross ones fingers? Wait?

Spot on, Mr Shibui! But I wonder if there are any benefits from making such an effort - other than exercising my imagination and blowing my own horn, that is...

Bretts wrote:You always find a way to make the job so intricate.

Glad you noticed, Brettles! Nothing wrong with intricacy in my book. Intricacy is what makes life - and the practice of Bonsai - so... umm... intricate?

Bzzzzz.

Hey Fly, Are you trying to become the Aussie Version of Doug?

this will be interesting to see what you get as you obviousely have not covered the complete trunk in Saplings

Ken

kcpoole wrote:Hey Fly, Are you trying to become the Aussie Version of Doug?

this will be interesting to see what you get as you obviousely have not covered the complete trunk in Saplings

Gday Ken!

Not trying to be the Aussie version of anybody - just using available materials and techniques to try to improve the lot of this ugly little trunk. I hope to fix the lopsided rootage with the grafts, as well as to artificially age the trunk by forcing the whips to set into the bark, giving a veined, muscular look (the twine should help to add years to the appearance of the trunk if it is kept constantly damp, too). Assuming that my 'whorl' of branches takes, I will eventually attempt to layer off the top of the tree above, with the aim of chopping the bottom trunk down and beginning a sort of 'broom' (with 13 pre-started branches to choose from).

That's the plan, anyway...

Thanks!

Fly.

Great job FlyBri, was planning on doing a very similar thing with a Swampy and some Swampy juniors, but my aim is to get the bottom of the trunk looking like feet on the the big old mothers in the swamps of Missouri ( everglades )

Jute twine yeah? Woot Jute!

Did you apply it dry? If you apply it wet, it shrinks to a very tight bind when dry. You probably worked that out for yourself though.

any updates on this trident?