Hello my bonsai friends,

I just received 5 Trident Maple seedlings (10 months old) that
I plan to grow
in the ground in South Florida. Issue 23, 1993 - 1 of 'Bonsai
Today', pgs. 13
- 20 has a fantastic article on how to develop them with
massive trunks,
taper and radial roots in about 7 years (pre-bonsai). I figure
that with luck
in South Florida with our longer growing season it can be done
faster.
BTW: This is one of the back issues that my thoughtful wife got
me for my
birthday.

Now my question. I assume that with our intense heat and sun in
summer that
these field grown trees should be put in dappled sun (not full
sun)? This
species is new to me; any and all suggestion would be
appreciated.

Up in this part of Florida, I do not let them SEE the sun after
10 a.m., Luis.

I exaggerate only a little. My setup pours sun onto my trees
until about 10:30 a.m. in the summer; from then on, they're in
shade that can only be described as "heavy" -- under a couple of
oaks, a large persimmon, a big American holly, and (until I had
them cut down) four 90-year-old loblolly pines. Removal of the
pines increased the light for a couple of years, but the
resulting denser canopies in the other trees have brought me back
to shade again.

With all this, my trident leaves look like the dickens by mid to
late summer. I don't even _think_ of trying Japanese maples in
pots any more, and my single in-the-ground Acer palmatum, also in
deep shade, also has rough looking leaves by the end of the
season.

Only a 4-inch mame trident tends to have leaves that don't look
like every leaf miner in the Western Hemisphere has been at them,
and that's probably because I defoliate it up to 4 times a year
to get leaf size down.

(This time of year, with the oaks and the persimmon bare, they
get quite a bit of light throughout the day, but that's OK as
they're making new leaves now.)

You have sea breezes which may ameliorate the sun situation a
bit, but you've also got salt air.

I think I'd go back to the old standard advice and suggest you
ask someone around you who grows them; I don't recall seeing
_any_ tridents at Miami Tropical Bonsai (however, I would not
have been looking for them, either, so I could have walked right
past and not let them register).

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden

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