Since I have about 75 Acer Buergerianum seedlings from last year I can use quite a bit of them for projects that seem like a lot of fun. The 1st project I’ll be doing is inspired (well, copied shamelessly) by this post: https://bonsaial.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/five-trees-in-a-hole-update/

The plan is to create a small 5-trunk Trident maple tree with the trunks fused at the base.

First I chose 5 one-year-old seedlings from my batch that I wanted to use for this:

The seedlings.

What I also needed was a tile with a hole in the center. The seedlings will be put through that hole. Eventually when the seedlings thicken, roots will start to grow above the tile (ground layering method) and the trunks will fuse there. I collected some lovely tiles during the year, since I’m a demolition contractor I have access to gazillions of tiles. I drilled a hole in one of them and made it round so it would fit a nursery container. 🙂

The tile, Italian made, collected from a kitchen I demolished 🙂

Next is the soil, I used some of my soil mix and added some organics to it. Small sized pine bark.

My bonsai soil mix

Added some pine bark

As a drainage layer I used Hydro Clay Pebbles, those work as well as big size Akadama and cost almost nothing.

Hydro clay pebbles

Then I took the seedlings out of the sowing trays and removed most of the potting soil.

Removing the potting soil.

After I removed the soil I cut off most of the tap root and put the seedlings through the hole in the tile. Then the tile with the seelings was placed in the nursery container that was partially filled with bonsai soil. The tricky part is to get soil all the way underneath the tile and between the roots of the seedlings. Also make sure the soil is wet before you place the tile on top of it.

The tile with the seelings through it.

Last but not least, I filled the rest of the container with soil so the tile is at least 3-4 centimeters (1,5 inches) below soil level so new roots can start the grow above the tile.

Finished, for now…

There you go, I hope to post an update with merged trunks and new roots at the end of this year. Fingers crossed!