Rampant Tridents

[Raging Bull]

Could some-one please give me some advice on my trident maples. I bought some bare-rooted from Shibui in the middle of June as very small seedlings, some little more than toothpicks with some a little more substantial. I lightly root pruned them and planted them into grow containers. They started almost immediately to come to life and 29 out of 30 were successful. to shibui for his excellent packaging. Well, they haven't stopped growing but as they were planted quite close together they are getting very long, straight and tall. They are growing much faster than I had anticipated. They were originally aquired to make group plantings. Is it too late to re-pot them further apart and prune them back or should I just let them grow for this summer to develop thicker trunks and prune and root prune next winter?

[shibui]

They should be fine in that box for this year. you can do some pruning on some or all if you like. That will give some taper in the trunks an might introduce some slight movement as well. Remember that you will need each tree in your group to be a different height so prune at different levels rather than just shearing across at the same height.
Stock for groups is best grown close together so they have some characteristics of trees in a forest even before you put the group together so your trees in the box should actually produce better stock than if they are in separate pots.

[melbrackstone]

What shibui said...since you're growing for a group planting they'll work much better being in a group from the start.

They are rampant in the Spring, but I've found they tend to slow right down in the heat of Summer, and rarely start again in Autumn, so make the most of the Spring growth.

[Raging Bull]

Thank you for the advice. I'll prune them and keep fertilizing.
Unfortunate we missed each other at the Bribane bonsai show this afternoon Mel. I enjoyed it and watched an interesting presentation , and bought a crepe myrtle and a Fukien Tea seedling, though the foliage doesn't look right for a Fukien. I'll probably ask for I.D. assistance after I've taken a couple of photos.
Cheers, Frank.

[melbrackstone]

I couldn't go the distance Frank, sorry. Too unwell to stay for the afternoon.

It's pretty good show though!