Twisted Maple project

[sharkbyte]

I used a bunch of Sugar Maple seedlings to do this project. I planted them all together in a pot and then proceded to twist them around each other. I wraped it with wire at the time, then over the winter I used a cotton material and tape so scaring would not accur. With last years growth they grew close to one another and started around each other, I expet the trunks to start fusing this year. as you can see in the photos I did a repot on it. Not the best time of year to repot (in the summer) but for these little maples it did not seem to hurt them at all. Thoughts/Ideas?

(Summer 2005)


(Winter 2005)


Thanks,
- $h@rK

[jerrymeislik]

Will look forward to seeing how this project progresses.
JerrJerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
www.bonsaihunk.us

[sharkbyte]

It is opening up already. I love watching the new leafs appear. I will get some photos .

- $h@rK

[theladysabine]

Basil...

I have talked to Daytona about this process previously. My impression from that conversation leads me to want to tell you not to expect that it will fuse together this year... I think you have a marvelous start, to be sure. Also did you frame the whips around anything? or is comprised enitely of whips with no gap in the middle? just curious...

Yours most kindly,

Sabine

[sharkbyte]

One whole tree, I made some mistakes though in the making because it was just a test tree. So I don't expect it to do much lol. And since they are so little and fast growing I feel i might get a little fusing this year, they are very tight already but we will see.

- $h@rK

[bonsaioutlaw]

hey man....that is awesome....iIhope you keep posting pics of this tree or trees. I have been braiding crape myrtle for decortive reasons for years... Until i saw this and a couple of other threads I had not given much thought to this technique for growing bigger tranks... I think i may try this as well thank you for posting.

[nemonemodory]

That's a good idea Shark. Maybe I'll try that since there always seem to be little maples popping up around here. =P

[sharkbyte]

Thanks, but I have bad news, something went wrong and it died . I think it was due tot he fact that these trees were 1 year seedlings. And usually not all seedling survive their first winter. So I think I made a mistake by not waiting until they were a little older. I fully plan on trying this again but with Japanese maples or tridents . I will be sure to post about it when I restart the project.

- $h@rK

[jerrymeislik]

Sorry to hear that they didn't make it.
Jerry

[nemonemodory]

Aw. Well, at least they're young so it's easy to start over.

[sharkbyte]

Ya, thats what I thought. It was a learning experience . Next time I will make it bigger and better with better trees . Looks like I'm going to get a load of Red Japanese Maple seeds as soon as they are ripe and start to fall. So if I get them to take off I may do the project with these trees . If I don't use them, I'm thinking either Green Japanese Maple or Trident Maple.

- $h@rK

[Irene]

Gonna share some of those seeds
Irene

[sharkbyte]

Well I'm not entirely sure how many seeds I'm going to get. The are going to be given to me from a local friends tree. Depending on how many I get depends if I share .

- $h@rK