Thanks! I wish I could buy BioGold. No dealers in Australia. I got one bag from Japan but that was just an expensive experiment. I wonder though if any fertilizer from the garden center would be good enough. When you add "bonsai" as an adjective to anything the price goes way up.
@@XaviersBonsaiRetreat I appreciate the effort you put into getting videos available for all to watch. I know you enjoy it (well, most of it) but the bonsai education benefits to me, and all viewers, are huge so I'm happy to make a small contribution to that from time to time. Given the amount of material you produce, it's just a few cents per hour of education and that's great value. Many thanks.
Thank you for that Carole - I feel like I am finally beuilding the knowledge and confidence to develop these properly. Autumn will be when I next get my cutters out to them :)
Have been following your Trident tutorials and the last one I did is a little kabudachi. And right now (winter in Australia) it looks like 3 dead sticks in a pot, but once the growing season comes and the new shoots extend from that very tight structure it will be stunning 😊. This long term approach really works, it's just hard as you say going back to bare bones when they look so nice, but then the next season when you see the multiple levels of short internodes it is so satisfying!😊
Excellent work, congratulations Xavier. In the last trident tree, I would have used the apex to graft the first branch. And the roots emerge on a beautiful rock (I don't cut them) Best regards 👍🏽
With that last tree, I'd wire up the highest branch and pull it up. And since you are now a master of thread grafting you could put another branch on that side mid height in between the other two
I think that I would plant the last tree in the ground and leave it for a couple of years to grow freely. Once the trunk had thickened a bit more cut the top off and go for a fat stumpy tree.
Good long term pruning my friend. I am going to do something different, I am putting myself in the mind of the tree and think to myself, I spend all freezing winter making sure that I stay alive in the first place but also healthy with loads of good juicy buds so when the weather gets better I can throw out some great beautiful leaves so I look full and healthy !! Then this bloke comes along and cuts all or most of my beautiful leaves off, what’s all that about, somebody take those things he cuts my leaves with OFF HIM or I am not going to bother next winter and see how he likes that when it warms up and Im DEAD. don’t have any Tridents but I am sure the pruning applies to all maple species. I am not a great lover of exposed roots Xav unless they’re wrapped round a rock. Is that brutal enough. .Have fun my friend.
I loved your view today and the more brutal the better. Liking the roots may just be another way to show I am 'at a loss' with what to do next...but don't tell anybody :)
Still amazes me how much the leaves have reduced on your tridents. Do you use a similar technique on any of your other deciduous trees? I think the direction of the last tree will be easier to see in autumn when the leaves have dropped - easier to tell if major branches are crossing the front. You should have no problem re-growing!
Love your pruning instructions! Trident in big trouble: Indeed a challenge. I would have cut quite similar and would hope for backbuding. Probably for one year. Rethinking if not successful. I try to do the same with my Chinese elm. Meanwhile unfortunately still not own a trident maple myself. Maybe it is possible to buy some of your rooted cuttings or even a smaller tree? Enjoy your day. Cheers, Martina
