I have a trident maple on which this past spring, I decided to put two root grafts to improve the nebari. Both have taken, with one of the grafts showing moderate growth; the other is growing way too rapidly. I will remove the slower growing scion in the spring, but I am concerned that the fast growing one will get out of control and leave an ugly scar. When should I remove it? Now? mid-winter? After first flush?
Here are a some pics, one immediately after performing the graft in March, two taken this week, of the grafted roots, the other of the scions.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER GRAFTING
GRAFTED ROOTS
THREADED SCIONS
Thanks!
The key is not how much growth you are getting of the shoot, but how well the root side is healing. If the larger one is connected to the root on the right of the 2nd picture you can probably remove it now. However, the safer route would be to cut off the strong upward growing branch and leave the small horizontal branch until after leaf hardening in the spring to get some more growth of the root to trunk connection. That should keep the scar on the branch side from getting much bigger while ensuring that the root side does not die off if it not fully fused.
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Good counsel. I hadn’t though about leaving the smaller branch intact. And, yes. The right side roots belong to the larger scion… Thanks Marty!
