Summer work on a trident maple

This tree was wired after the leaves fell, late November 2020

By the second pruning in late spring 2021, it was time to remove wires.

Using a photo of the leafless tree to make sure I don’t miss any wires!

Wires removed, and lightly pruned, late April 2021.

And in mid-summer, it was time to get a look at what was going on under all that foliage.

During explosive growth, whorls and strong shoots can develop, which aren’t useful to the design of the tree. I left the long shoots in case one was necessary as a sacrifice branch, but most of the leaves were removed so I could prune back the growth to evenly-sized transitions and pairs of shoots at each terminal.

First right branch, pruned back to pairs of shoots, with good transitions and short internodes.

Repeating this moving upward into the tree. Adding a few wires where necessary.

Work complete, mid-July 2021.

Night shot

Exactly 3 weeks later, here is how the tree has responded. The leaves are slightly larger, and the internodes on some shoots are longer.

So the tree was lightly pruned, removing long shoots back to the first internode, and some of the larger leaves were removed.

And then it was returned to the bench to continue growing out.