What happens when I get home with a stump.

[M. Frary]

Here is a little picture series on what I do when I bring home a decidious tree from the woods
This is an American Hornbeam. Anymore when I dig them I don't even put them into a container for transportation. They come out of the ground looking like this. I just toss them into the back of the old Explorer like this.

 

[M. Frary]

Time for the hose! I put it on the ground and proceed to wash everything off of the roots. It takes around 5 minutes.

 

[M. Frary]

This tree had great roots 3/4 of the way around the tree but only one little root in the other 1/4. Nothing to be done for it right now.
I hold it over the collander in order to size it up. I need to kmow the amount of roots I need to cut back in order to fit it in.

 

[M. Frary]

All cut back and dusted with rooting hormone. I think it just washes off right away but what the heck!

 

[M. Frary]

All soiled up. I've been collecting these extra tall and sealing the cut after that Hops Hornbeam fiasco.

 

[JoeR]

Well dang man, no one ever told me you can be so harsh to these things!

Nice work

 

[Tieball]

Well....finally....someone else who has Hornbeams with no branches and the single branch (might actually be a trunk) growing from the roots. Just like Hornbeams I seem to collect. Fabulous root spread. Good muscular trunk. Tolerates root pruning. Likes moist roots. On your trees, with your experience, do you get any buds on large trunks like this? The trees I collect don't seem to produce buds. Is there anything special you will do to encourage budding?

The collected trees I have also heal incredible slow.....really slow if at all.

 

[M. Frary]

It has to be that way. Compared what I do to elms this is nothing. I just started collecting Hornbeams last spring and not knowing what they can take I go a little easy on them.
Check out some of the collected elm threads I have on here. Now that's harsh.
I wish I could do this to pines. Life would be so much easier.

 

[grouper52]

Very nicely done, and a nicely presented progression. It looks like it might have great promise, but if, as Tieball says, you get no budding on a trunk this old, what can you do?

one solution might be to collect in the late fall or very early spring when they are dormant and the energy is stored in the roots. That may create more pressure to push buds onto hard wood when spring arrives. I know those are the best collecting times where I go.

 

[M. Frary]

Very nicely done, and a nicely presented progression. It looks like it might have great promise, but if, as Tieball says, you get no budding on a trunk this old, what can you do?

one solution might be to collect in the late fall or very early spring when they are dormant and the energy is stored in the roots. That may create more pressure to push buds onto hard wood when spring arrives. I know those are the best collecting times where I go.

But it is early spring. These were just opening up. I got some last week too. Since they are under everything else in the shade they are last to get leaves. Hell,we were still having temps. in the twentis at night 2 weeks ago. Fairbanks Alaska has spring earlier than me.

 

[tolz]

All soiled up. I've been collecting these extra tall and sealing the cut after that Hops Hornbeam fiasco.View attachment 73878

Good info, Mike

 

[M. Frary]

Thanks Lee. I've been trying to document everything I do with pictures so I can put it here for everyone too see. This stuff works for me,I may suffer a loss here or there but you reduce the risk of that by harvesting healthy trees.
If others do things differently it would be great to see how they collect trees and what they do once they have them.
On a side note. The ticks are out. I had 2 of them on me yesterday when I got home.

 

[grouper52]

But it is early spring. These were just opening up. I got some last week too. Since they are under everything else in the shade they are last to get leaves. Hell,we were still having temps. in the twentis at night 2 weeks ago. Fairbanks Alaska has spring earlier than me.

Yes, but . . . the fact that they were just opening up means that the energy was already largely spent up higher where there were new buds waiting from the past year. It seems to me that it may be difficult in this species to awaken the any dormant buds down low on really old wood without making use of every last measure of the stored energy in the roots. That's all I'm saying. With trees that do so easily, it would not be such a problem, but if I'm hearing correctly on this thread it may not be easy to get new buds on this species at the base after transplant, so maybe even early spring may be too late. Time will tell, and I hope I'm wrong, because the trunk has a nice muscularity to it.

 

[M. Frary]

If they don't grow I chalk it up to a learning experience. There are many more for collection next year. The only problem here is where they live the frost wasn't out of the ground 2 weeks ago. Things happen fast here. The plants know time is limited. Then winter again. 6 months from now. Got to love it.

 

[grouper52]

If they don't grow I chalk it up to a learning experience. There are many more for collection next year. The only problem here is where they live the frost wasn't out of the ground 2 weeks ago. Things happen fast here. The plants know time is limited. Then winter again. 6 months from now. Got to love it.

That's a very small window of opportunity! You might do better to collect some this fall at various stages of the going-dormant process, and see what works best.

 

[M. Frary]

I ran a shovel around some out there and cut the roots in the ground. I also chopped them. We'll see what they look like next spring.

 

[leatherback]

I also chopped them.

Yeah, that was going to be my suggestion: Chop them to size mid-winter, while in the ground. Then let them go for ne growing season and collect the next. Seems like the best bet on back-budding on old trunks.

I collected a 12 in european (!) hornbeam this winter, chopped back to almost nothing. It is only now showing buds (With spring arriving here in mid-to-late march)

 

[Waltron]

So I basically did the same method as you on a hornbeam last spring, my colander is a bit smaller than yours, and my soil mix was very very airy... this thing didn't do anything, besides one of the roots sprouted... was wondering if you had any luck with this one? i really want to collect more, but i would do the same method but maybe some more water retentive soil... what do you think?

 

[M. Frary]

The hornbeam only sprouted out of the base and 1 branch about 4" up. I believe I'm collecting them too late.

 

[Waltron]

ah ok, when do you intend to collect your hornbeams this year?