I was puttering with my trees yesterday, under the shelter of my porch
while a thunder storm made it way over the valley. It has rained A LOT this
Spring/Summer and it has been 10 - 20 deg cooler then normal here in New
England. I choose a Trident maple that needed some attention. I have been
growing this little tree for three or four years from one of those Miniature
Plant Kingdom 4" starter pots. A couple years ago I transplanted it into a
10" water plant screen pot and the root development has been great. The
tree is starting to look decent though the first branch is a two foot long
sacrifice branch which is doing its job, increasing the base of the tree. I
have kept the top trimmed and compact until the rain started a couple of
months ago. When it caught my eye today I noticed it had tiny three quarter
inch leaves on the end of three inch petioles. I decided it must be the cool
overcast weather and the leaves where stretching out looking for the sun.
With the break in the weather expected I decided to defoliate the top of the
tree to keep it compact and to stop this stretching. But I was in a
quandary, what about the sacrifice branch I was concerned that if I left the
leaves only on it the tree may sacrifice the top once it was defoliated.
What would you have done?
I decided to play it safe and defoliate the sacrificial branch also even
though I really don’t care if it had large leaves or not it is only going to
be chopped off when its job is done. Was this the correct choice?

Doug Taylor
Zone 5 Mass

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Mike Page ++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++