Tridents Galore

[phantom]

I love people who have a go.

[Dario]

Looking great Alpine
Will be interested to see those fused tridents develop.
Glad to see you are churning through the growing tasks! Good luck with the crab apples and repotting etc
Cheers, Dario.

[alpineart]

Hi Phantom , gotta have a go that's for sure . I could sit idle but you don't achieve much , way too many plants and weeds to tackle around here .

Hi Dario , Mate it good to finish the tridents , although i decide when your on a good thing keep going , so i did the crab apples this afternoon as well . Bugger me if i didn't find another 20 odd Tridents . I have around 50 plants left to dig so that's tomorrows job . Next week i need to drive to Beveridge for a much needed load of Scoria for the re-potting , better late than never this season . If i can at least have the material here then its a matter of plodding along , mind you i think most plants will be slip potted with a minimal root prune.

Cheers Guys . Alpine

[alpineart]

Well its been a good season for growing roots on these bigger collected material

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. There is 3 trunks that have very poor roots however the overall result was a good one, all where flat cut like an olive then planted out into the grow bed

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This trunk along with a couple of others will have the apexes layered off over the coming season .

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A couple of trunks i dug earlier this week

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. Now with the sun shining out there i will dig a few fused trunks from the top bed , Not a good result from the fusing side of things but another season will improve the outcome .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

Here is a few of the better fusing trunks ,

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Not a real good result for fusing but they are getting there . Now all i have to do is dig the rest , turn in some more compost to enrich the grow bed and put them back into the ground . Slow and steady and I'll get there .

Cheers Alpineart

[Bougy Fan]

How long before you think they will fuse totally Ian ? Do you think it's a better result than trying to ground grow a trunk - is it quicker I mean ? Love the silicone tube - should be the standard large size comparison and pups AA battery the standard small one

[alpineart]

Hi Bougy , some fuse in 12 months this lot was in a very poor heavy clay grow bed , i didn't take the time to prepare it as i had way too many better trunks to play with .All up 90 % have fused or partially fused . In the ground pest such as slater's get into the crevices between the whips and ring bark some of the lesser trunks , this stuffs up the fusing of some area's and die back buggers the rest .

The ties become loose and its not a total failure but a minor set back , a keen eye and a fit body would see them fixed however the health wasn't good for monitoring trunk this last season .

I would at a guess estimate 3 years to grow a 150mm uniquely different type of base using up to 60 whips in good quality garden soil .

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This is as far as i managed to get today , it was a marathon effort for this old bugger . Tomorrow i turn the soil over again then root prune and back they go for another 12 months .

Cheers Alpine

[Josh]

These are looking awesome. Itching to get some stuff happening here. Need to get some grow beds happening. Where do you get the whips from? I have seen a few trees done like this but you can see the twist in the trunk still from the fusing. Do they actually grow out with no evidence of the twisting?

Josh.

[alpineart]

Hi Josh , mate they are moving in the right direction , the whips were seed grown here . I have some trunks here that i will post up , they are smaller but fused in a single season with very little evidence of being multiple whips . There is a fine mark but not like a chop from a sacrifice branch, and the movement is growing along fine . The older they get the less noticeable the marks will be as they continue to grow and fused as one trunk .

Just for the record these were 2 year old plants from the previous fusings that failed , not 1 year old clean whips , so fusing is slower .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Here is a couple of 25mm fused trunks done 2 years ago with 1 yo whips , they fused exceptionally well in the first season being young and supple

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They are concealing the plaited trunk and spiral trunk wrap very well .I have around 100 of these from 20mm to 150mm bases at various stages of fusing all are 2 years or less in the configurations .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Well this task is complete all have been root pruned ,

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Selectively trimmed and back to bed the go .

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a few spares due to the size of the root mass retained there was less room in the terrace , these will make 1or 2 different configurations

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After working these one's the single trunks will be a breeze , only 100 or so to go .

Cheers Alpineart

[Ces]

Inspiring work Alpine.

Setting up my own grow bed very soon with FAR less plants than you. you are a machine mate! Hats off to you. you'll be reaping the rewards for years to come.

Cheers,

Ces.

[alpineart]

Hi Ces , mate there's nothing like having a few plants that you can hack and chop . I have a few more but i hack and chop more . All the beds have different types of soils , different positions in the yard and with the 3 tiered terraces the watering is different so everything i do i'm testing different situation .

Then i get to hack them to bits so it a little testing field in the yard . Some times it test's me out to get things done like re-potting .This year it wont happen , thats O.K it will be the first time in 20 years i haven't re-potted yearly .There are times i wish i never had the material so i wouldn't have to look after it .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Well its been a productive weekend , inspired by a young man i met Friday Night . No good sitting around waiting for something to happen , get out there and make it happen . I was also talking to another young fella at the same meeting and low and behold he lent me a labourer

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, said it would look better in my shed than his . With a few grow beds to dig over i was very appreciative of the kind gesture . The Trident grow bed was looking pretty sad

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but a revamp and its looking the goods

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. It took a day to re-set and widen the grow beds ,

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then its was full steam ahead today

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. I planted out 90 Trident Maples

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and 80 Crab Apples

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. With another 60 tridents to go i will be a happy camper when their finished . I need to create another grow bed for the rest of the Tridents so the Labourer/Rotary Hoe will come in very handy and while i'm at it i will hit the terraces and split them into double terraces just in case i find a few more plants .

Cheers Alpineart

[Bougy Fan]

Have you no shame man ? Here I am on a postage stamp size block with my missus complaining about how she doesn't have a courtyard and you are shamelessly flaunting your riches in land