American hornbeam branch die off help

[Lars Grimm]

Hello All,

This is an American Hornbeam that was collected five years ago with some extensive deadwood. It was repotted this March. It leafed out and has hardened off without any problems. The only work I have done is redoing some wiring to accommodate some branch thickening. It has been fed regularly with solid and liquid fertilizer since hardening off. I recently noticed that one of the secondary branches has started to die back in the apex. You can see in the photos that the leaves all appear wilted and several have dropped off already. Additional secondary branches on the same primary all look fine. There is no wire biting into the branch. I can't figure out why something like this would happen. This is not a species I associate with random branch die off either. Anyone have any ideas?

Full view of the tree


View of the branch showing wilted leaves and leaf drop off.


Zoomed out view of the rest of the branch showing that the other secondary branches are healthy. The wilted branch is in the foreground with the wire.

 

[Cadillactaste]

This is such a far fetched thought. Have you checked the branch where it comes off the tree? I see thick wire...could it have by chance broke at that juncture not seen by the wire above it. Highly doubtful. But the only thing I can think of. Since that was all that basically done with it. And the tree appears healthy.

 

[Lars Grimm]

This is such a far fetched thought. Have you checked the branch where it comes off the tree? I see thick wire...could it have by chance broke at that juncture not seen by the wire above it. Highly doubtful. But the only thing I can think of. Since that was all that basically done with it. And the tree appears healthy.

That was my first thought, but the wire is not too tight and there is no crack at the juncture where it meets. I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by it.

 

[Zach Smith]

Not sure if this applies to your situation, but in spring I often see on my big hornbeam what looks like flagging of the new growth foliage at the tips of the branches even though I know there's no lack of water, soil drains, etc. This doesn't persist, and I think it may have to do with low humidity days in spring when there's just not enough moisture coming from the root zone to keep the leaves up. There's never any lasting problem from this, no browning of leaf edges or tips. I always chalk it up to just being a characteristic of the species. Usually by the time the humidity here is more in the normal 1,000% range, no further issues.

Again, not sure if it applies to you. I'd say do nothing until and unless you see leaf damage. It may be transient.

 

[just.wing.it]

My American Hornbeam does like Zach says too...although it did also abandon 2 branches this year...
My old (now dead) Japanese Hornbeam was in the process of abandoning branches when I acquired it (my dumb fault)...and it slowly dropped one after another until it was dead.
I have no clue what was going on with that tree....

I do hear that American Hornbeam likes a lot of water....so I try to keep up with that.

 

[Lars Grimm]

Not sure if this applies to your situation, but in spring I often see on my big hornbeam what looks like flagging of the new growth foliage at the tips of the branches even though I know there's no lack of water, soil drains, etc. This doesn't persist, and I think it may have to do with low humidity days in spring when there's just not enough moisture coming from the root zone to keep the leaves up. There's never any lasting problem from this, no browning of leaf edges or tips. I always chalk it up to just being a characteristic of the species. Usually by the time the humidity here is more in the normal 1,000% range, no further issues.

Again, not sure if it applies to you. I'd say do nothing until and unless you see leaf damage. It may be transient.

Thanks Zach. We have certainly had some changes in the weather recently, but mostly that has been higher heat, more rain, and increased humidity. I've tried to tip the pot up in case there was insufficient water movement under the body of the trunk. Not much else I can do at this point.

 

[just.wing.it]

Thanks Zach. We have certainly had some changes in the weather recently, but mostly that has been higher heat, more rain, and increased humidity. I've tried to tip the pot up in case there was insufficient water movement under the body of the trunk. Not much else I can do at this point.

Did it lose more branches last year?

 

[Shogun610]

Hello All,

This is an American Hornbeam that was collected five years ago with some extensive deadwood. It was repotted this March. It leafed out and has hardened off without any problems. The only work I have done is redoing some wiring to accommodate some branch thickening. It has been fed regularly with solid and liquid fertilizer since hardening off. I recently noticed that one of the secondary branches has started to die back in the apex. You can see in the photos that the leaves all appear wilted and several have dropped off already. Additional secondary branches on the same primary all look fine. There is no wire biting into the branch. I can't figure out why something like this would happen. This is not a species I associate with random branch die off either. Anyone have any ideas?

Full view of the tree
View attachment 379510

View of the branch showing wilted leaves and leaf drop off.
View attachment 379512

Zoomed out view of the rest of the branch showing that the other secondary branches are healthy. The wilted branch is in the foreground with the wire.
View attachment 379511

What location do you keep it in the yard?

 

[Lars Grimm]

Did it lose more branches last year?

No more die back the rest of the year. I asked Ryan Neil about it and he said that sometimes you can just injure the cambial layer enough during wiring that it weakens the branch so that it cannot transport enough water when temperatures get warm. In retrospect, I did probably make more changes to that area when doing my initial styling. Lesson learned to take it slow as needed. The rest of the tree grew well though and is still in winter storage.

 

[Lars Grimm]

What location do you keep it in the yard?

I keep it under the pergola so it gets sun all day but with some filtering. Some landscape hornbeams do well with full sun, but they seem to prefer some shade.

 

[Shogun610]

I keep it under the pergola so it gets sun all day but with some filtering. Some landscape hornbeams do well with full sun, but they seem to prefer some shade.

Yeah I was just asking .. I keep American hornbeam somewhat shaded under cloth or behind bigger trees when I can from afternoon sun… what’s the soil substrate mixture?