Ternary Search Tree Implementation in R

Question

I'm trying to implement a ternary search tree in R.

Here's the logic I'm trying to implement:

A vector will be "tiered" by designating each level of the tree as the next 3^somepower of cells after the existing tier. So tier 1 will be the first cell, tier 2 will be cells 2-4, tier 3 will be cells 5-13, tier 4 will be cells 14-40, tier 5 will be cells 41-122, and so on.

I want my code to do the following:

1) Take a vector, and an object obj to insert in the tree. In practice obj will be a number.

2) If the slot I'm trying to go into is full, jump down to the next tier, according to the rules:

2a) If obj is < than the occupied cell, go down to the left cell in the next level, of the three-cell-block "directly below" it.

2b) If obj is == the occupied cell, go down to the center cell of the three-cell-block "directly below" it.

2c) If 'obj' is > the occupied cell, go down to the rightmost cell of the three-cell-block "directly below it".

I drew a diagram of what I want the output to be if I put in the numbers 34,42,15,24,16, 34,52,32,42,19,21,16,54,60,55. I included the code that does something, but I don't understand exactly what it's doing. I just know that it isn't doing what I want to do.

Thanks for your help.

Desired output:

My code:

put<-function(obj, Tree,pow=0,offset=1,arity=3)
{
  level<-arity^pow

   if (is.na(Tree[level])){
      Tree[level+offset-1]<-obj
      return(Tree)
  } else {
  if (obj<Tree[level]) {
      put(obj,Tree,pow+1,offset=0)
  } else {
  if (obj == Tree[level]){
      put(obj,Tree,pow+1,offset=1)
  } else {
  if (obj > Tree[level]){
      put(obj,Tree,pow+1,offset=2)
  }}}}
}
BeforeTree<-c(34,42,15,24,16,
              34,52,32,42,19,21,16,54,60,55)

Tree<-NA

for (idx in 1:(length(BeforeTree)))
{Tree<-put(BeforeTree[idx],Tree)}
(Tree)