Root training Trident Maple cuttings

[63pmp]

Lots of people on this site a trying to develop trees by growing out in the field or in Styrofoam boxes, however some seem to be confused about training the roots, which is of primary importance. I potted up some trident maple cuttings which were stuck in October 2007 and so put together a short report on how to root train them. I will be field planting some Red Pine this weekend and I will show how I train these roots before planting

Some of the tridents cuttings were a little weak so I left them in the box for an extra summer to develop the roots a bit more. The propagating mixture was pure perlite, I used a Styrofoam box with plastic sheeting as my propagating humidity crib.

The first photo shows the root mass after removing all the perlite. Cuttings were made with a wedge just below a node, treated with 3000 IBA hormone in talc. Use a very sharp knife to do the cuttings, it must be sharp enough to cut the hair on your arms. The thing to notice with these cuttings is that the first roots grow vertically, after a while secondary roots emerge from the stem which grow horizontally.

IMG_0091 reduced.JPG

People are often too timid in working on roots, and for some species care must be taken, however Tridents are very forgiving. It is the after care that is important.
When pruning remove all vertically growing roots, the idea is to create a very thin radial pattern. The second image is what is left after pruning. Prune thick roots short and leave thin roots long. Cut anything that doesn't go where you want it. This is fairly standard for the treatment I give cuttings, I will bare root and repeat the process again next year, if good I will plant in the field. No thought is given to training the top for these next few years other than I reduce the mass to compensate for the loss of roots. The trees are fertilized and encouraged to grow.

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When repotting, plant the tree deep, the roots should be at least an inch under the top. This ensures they never dry out, as dry roots do not re-shoot. Also the roots should be high enough that they are out of the saturated zone of the potting mix.

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Spread the roots radialy. Bamboo skewers are good as vertical props to hold the roots in a radial pattern. Leave the skewers long so that they can be removed in a few months. Once the tree is centered fill it up with potting mix.

After care is placing the pot in a shade house and monitoring water. Initially I would probably only water once or twice a week. Currently I am only watering once every two days. After about six weeks of strong shoot growth I’ll gradually move out into full sun.

Hope this shows the steps involved.

Paul

[Japh]

Thanks for that, Paul! Much appreciated. I'll be giving this a go on my Chinese Elm tonight or tomorrow.

[63pmp]

Japh'

Elm roots are quite soft and pithy. They tend to crush when cutting. Use sharp tools and tidy up the ends of thick roots ( anything > 5mm) with a sharp knife to remove any crushed root. This will help stop it from rotting. This is the only extra thing I do for elms when root pruning.

Paul

[Japh]

Japh'

Elm roots are quite soft and pithy. They tend to crush when cutting. Use sharp tools and tidy up the ends of thick roots ( anything > 5mm) with a sharp knife to remove any crushed root. This will help stop it from rotting. This is the only extra thing I do for elms when root pruning.

Paul

Ah ok, very good. Can you please define "tidy up"? I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, sorry

[Jamie]

this is a good thread paul, it will help me with my trident, its still young, and i have a whole heap of elm cuttings that i am trying to get to strike. so this will be helpfull for me too
and when you say tidy up i presume clean uo any ugly cuts with a razor to give it better chance of finer roots and to not get rotten? yes?

[63pmp]

Tidy up.

Yes it means clean up the end of cut roots with scalpel, razor blade, sharp knife, craft knives with snap off blades are good, whatever you have. Scissors or concave cutters will bruise the wood at the cut. Shave off any bruised wood to leave smooth undamaged bark and wood at the end of the cut, try and make this cut as flat and smooth as possible. If the root grows directly form the bottom of the trunk cut it off flush so there is no root stump. Some roots head horizontally and then grow down, cut these so the wound faces outward. Try and give the wound direction, downward facing cuts tend to issue vertical roots, angling the cut horizontally helps to send any roots that may come out in that direction. For tridents I just use a sharp concave cutter or root cutter to tidy up the end of thick roots, but elms are too soft and just crush, so I use a knife on them.


Paul

[Scott Roxburgh]

Ggreat thread paul!

do you have any further along the road in development.

do you treat seedlings the same?

thanks

Scott

[63pmp]

Hi Scott,

I tend to be tough on seedlings and ease up as there roots become more refined. I find maples rather forgiving, on some of the little trees with very poor roots I remove almost all of them and treat them as cuttings. Because they already have a root base they shoot roots easily compared to a true cutting. Of course the harsher you treat them the higher the loses.

I lose quite a few japanese black pine seedlings. This is because I can only get cheap stock from Sydney, there usually about 3-4 yrs old, and usually pot bound to a high degree with no training on the roots. I did this one today.

They look like this when I buy them.

JBP 1.JPG

After I remove the soil I find the hidden root bound section

JBP 2.JPG

I bare root them and they look like this

JBP 3.JPG

After removing a lot of roots

JBP 4.JPG

I wired it to get some movement inthe lower trunk

JBP 5.JPG

I then bent all the roots to a horizontal plane and held them in place with bamboo skewers and while I poured on more potting mix.

JBP 6.JPG

So if it survives all this it might become an interesting tree.

[Scott Roxburgh]

awesome paul!

do you have any pics of any more advance maple seedlings/cuttings

I am going through the same process at the moment so i would love to see some further into the process.

cheers

Scott

[63pmp]

Sorry, no photos of larger maples.

They were on a my old computer that got stolen, and all my maples have been potted up or field planted.

Paul

[MasonC]

this has explained a lot to me. I have about 40 japanese maple cuttings that should strike this summer. Good info. in this thread.