Thanks. My point is general, good to know that Hornbeam should be treated differently. It is however, never about recovery...it is more about putting the growth where I want it (apparently not applicable in this case).
I also believe in cases where we produce the problem by trying to avoid it. Some fear die back so they add more length...not knowingly that the die back is caused by the reduce root to trunk/branch ratio and the root cannot sustain the extra trunk. Not saying it is the case with Hornbeam but it could.
I have collected many many trees over the years. a conservative estimate at over 1500, starting back in 94'. Probably over 150 with trunks over 8 inches easily. I have been collecting over 100 trees a year this time of year for the past ten years, although not all large beasts. A classic mistake I made in the beginning was trying to cut to a line at first collection. More often than not, they would live, but the wounds I created to angle cut to a bud would die back, making a much larger wound than necessary, or having it die back so low I would have to put it in the ground or a large pot to regrow taper to first cut, ruining why I got the tree in the first place. This happened on every species i collected, from junipers to red maples to Hornbeams to Crape myrtles to hackberries. We then had a few professionals who had a lot more experience collecting a whole lot more material than I. The consensus was I was cutting to a line too soon. Then I started Flat cutting the tops and low and behold, they would pop in areas I hadn't anticipated and most of the time would still pop where I needed them to, giving me more design options and better material. When you collect a tree and cut most of the heavy nutrient receiving roots, it needs to build new vigorous flow pathways and get a root structure underneath it to give storage capacity of nutrients, mineral and moisture uptake ability, and finer feeder roots close to trunk so the next repot isn't nearly so damaging and shocking to the plant. The chance of the tree dying back before the pathways are built is great, hence the added buffer of height, however small it may be. Granted, a tree pulled out of the ground in a growing bed environment has amazing vigor the following spring due to the close compact roots due to periodic chopping of root ball and frequent fertilizing and trimming of tops for smaller wounds. But collected trees, usually collected for their interesting deadwood or movement, tend to be weak to start with and need a while to build up health before serious work can begin. If a serious cut is made to final height the first time at collection without any recovery time or leaving extra foliage to recover and grow roots ( junipers), you may just get a dead tree on these old, weak collections. I have found if you have some extra height, you can always carve and lower to a line once you have the vigor you need because you know the trees history for the past 3 years or so, and be confident it will do what is expected without that X factor. Im not saying leave an extra few feet, more like a few inches.
However, I have found a few types of trees (cypress) collected sometimes only pop at top cut, or only pop in a few places. But that is what intermittent mist is for. Plus, thread and approach grafting is easy with deciduous trees so you can place a branch right where you want them.
My thoughts and reasons, anyways.