Hi, I just recieved a green maple it's a tiny little thing, I was wondering how do I grow the trunk. Can I take it from this little pot and plant it in a larger cut barrel and would that work better? Tree is 4 years old.

jarrell16 wrote: Hi, I just recieved a green maple it's a tiny little thing, I was wondering how do I grow the trunk. Can I take it from this little pot and plant it in a larger cut barrel and would that work better? Tree is 4 years old.

if you want to grow a trunk you should get it out of that pot and plant it in the garden. It'll take some 5-10 years.

www.evergreengardenworks.com/trunks.htm

Ok thanks, that was what I thinking just wanted to make sure.

Different routes are possible.

I am growing a few maples out in the ground for fast trunk development. However, the last few years I have become more appreciative of the trunks developed without larged cuts and I am growing my newer maples in a pot. One member (Or actually, a couple that have a shared hobby: Growing bonsai) of one of my bonsaiclubs grows all maples out in the pot, with astonishing results. Going from the side you have there to a 4cm trunk in 8-10 years.

To do this, they repot every second year, each year in a pot one size up. Always in bonsai pots. They continuously pinch new growth. I went to their place last week and all their maples had been pruned back to the first set of leaves. This results in dense crowns. They found that by doing this continuously they get good trunk development, even in a pot.

This goes against convrntional wisdom. But I am trying their technique now too, This week I trimmed 8 maples to the first set of leaves, and have remove the sacrifice branches I was growing. In the end.. A longer race with a better tree is still a race won. Extra bonus: The tree will look good during the development too!