This is a fun project that I started 4 years ago. The progress can be watched here.

Since the plan is to keep the tree in it’s wooden growbox for 1 more year I figured it was a good idea to give it one more big cutback and let it grow freely for another year after that.

Before the work started the tree looked like this:

It grew really well last year.

After cutting back to the new leaders I ended up with this result:

View from above:

After some wiring and applying cut paste to the wounds the tree is ready to go into spring.

Now that the main trunk lines have been set I can repot it next year and start working on the branches.

Oh my… I neglected this tree for almost 3 years and just let it do it’s thing in a corner in the garden. But damn, am I glad I did that!

Previous posts about this Acer Buergerianum trunk fusion project can be found here.

I needed a shovel to get the wooden growbox off the ground since the roots grew right through the wood that had slowly decayed over the last 3 years.
The whole thing was about 2,5 metres or 8ft high.

After cutting back the branches I moved the tree to the work table.

The wooden growbox was so rotten that I could literally peel it off (with a little help from some tools since the roots grew in the wood).

A very dense rootball appeared together with some big long roots.

After almost an hour of combing out the roots and cutting back the big roots the result looked like this :

As you might have noticed, only 3 of the 4 trunks that the tree had 3 years ago are left, I cut off the 4th a few months after I made the previous post.

Anyway, time to put the tree back in a pot. No more wooden growbox this time but a regular plastic training pot. After putting some wire on a few branches to point them to the right direction I was done for the time being.

Because I let the tree grow out for 3 years it completely closed all it’s big wounds. Ofcourse I made some new big wounds but they will also heal eventually. That’s what trident maple bonsai do.

The photo below shows a big wound that has closed completely with another big wound above where I just cut off a branch.

Now let’s try to get some more branches on this sucker

Oh my… I neglected this tree for almost 3 years and just let it do it’s thing in a corner in the garden. But damn, am I glad I did that!

Previous posts about this Acer Buergerianum trunk fusion project can be found here.

I needed a shovel to get the wooden growbox off the ground since the roots grew right through the wood that had slowly decayed over the last 3 years.
The whole thing was about 2,5 metres or 8ft high.

After cutting back the branches I moved the tree to the work table.

The wooden growbox was so rotten that I could literally peel it off (with a little help from some tools since the roots grew in the wood).

A very dense rootball appeared together with some big long roots.

After almost an hour of combing out the roots and cutting back the big roots the result looked like this :

As you might have noticed, only 3 of the 4 trunks that the tree had 3 years ago are left, I cut off the 4th a few months after I made the previous post.

Anyway, time to put the tree back in a pot. No more wooden growbox this time but a regular plastic training pot. After putting some wire on a few branches to point them to the right direction I was done for the time being.

Because I let the tree grow out for 3 years it completely closed all it’s big wounds. Ofcourse I made some new big wounds but they will also heal eventually. That’s what trident maple bonsai do.

The photo below shows a big wound that has closed completely with another big wound above where I just cut off a branch.

Now let’s try to get some more branches on this sucker