Beech for Bonsai

berobinson82

berobinson82

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Greetings!

This weekend I was walking around my parents' property looking for any potential. I marked a few trees that I thought would be fun to work with next year and made notes on where they actually were found. They have this one big beech tree out there that I was drawn to. The leaves are pretty large and I'm curious if they can be reduced. It would probably end up being a 4ft tree which I guess will help with the leaf size. In my mind it would end up looking like that big maple in the National Arboretum:

[drool]

maple.jpg

[/drool]

If I had my camera I'd post a pic. Perhaps I can do so tonight.

It's getting on in our spring here in VA. I Imagine it's too late to chop it and dig it up now... Unless perhaps I could chop it now and leave it in the ground?

They had another in the ground cut to about 4.5 feet earlier this year and it's pushing new growth rapidly through it's rough bark which makes me think this will be a possible, yet monumental challenge.

Guidance is welcome and MOST appreciated. I'll get that pic posted as soon as I'm able.

Cheers,

B
 
The problems with American beech as bonsai are many. I've had one for 15 years that I collected in the woods behind my house.

The species first big issue is collection. (It's too late for this year)

The tree you mean to collect could be a root sucker from another tree and is living on the roots of its parent. Beech self-propagate that way (and I've found that it is more common than seed propagation in the woods near me). If the tree is connected to a larger root system, it might mean it has no roots of its own. You will have to ground layer it to force it to produce its own roots.

The second big issue is American beech are extremely slow trees. They're the last ones to put out leaves in the spring, for instance. Additionally, backbudding is EXTREMELY difficult if you're new to the species. American beech produce only a single flush of new growth each spring and will not backbud as extensively as other species --IF you don't know how to induce it-which is by removal of terminal buds in late winter.

FWIW, don't trunk chop trees in the woods and leave them. I've found that can kill some species in a few years. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it may be that the tree can no longer compete effectively with its neighbors in its weakened state. Even though initial backbudding occurs, left in place for a few years in the hopes of growing out a new leader, the tree declines and dies....
 
MMM beech, one of my favorite subjects!

Do you know if this is American Beech? I have a European Beech, they are wonderful trees to work with. I think American could be just as good, I've been scouting around for one.

As you correctly guessed, these make good larger trees, not so good smaller ones because of the leaf size. They can be reduced somewhat, mine are around 1", and smaller. I don't think I'd do anything at this point to your tree, but start to prepare it for removal. Beech only have one (sometimes two) flushes of growth during the season. Pictures will help here, is there any branching low on this tree? If you do a partial defoliation on beech, they'll push a second flush of buds, and you may want to try that. If this is a long term project (meaning you don't need to get it out of the ground soon) I would do a defoliation after the leaves harden off (probably now) and trench the roots this fall, backfill with fast draining coarse substrate. I would chop it during dormancy and let it recover in the ground for a year at least. If you can work it in the ground for a couple of years, you'll get better growth. Depending on what the root spread is like, you may want to dig it up after it recovers from the chop (say next fall?) and plant it on a tile. Harry Harrington has some nice progression info on his bonsai4me site you should take a look at. I have a couple threads on my beech on this site.
 
berobinson82 said:
Greetings!

This weekend I was walking around my parents' property looking for any potential. I marked a few trees that I thought would be fun to work with next year and made notes on where they actually were found. They have this one big beech tree out there that I was drawn to. The leaves are pretty large and I'm curious if they can be reduced. It would probably end up being a 4ft tree which I guess will help with the leaf size. In my mind it would end up looking like that big maple in the National Arboretum:

If I had my camera I'd post a pic. Perhaps I can do so tonight.

It's getting on in our spring here in VA. I Imagine it's too late to chop it and dig it up now... Unless perhaps I could chop it now and leave it in the ground?

They had another in the ground cut to about 4.5 feet earlier this year and it's pushing new growth rapidly through it's rough bark which makes me think this will be a possible, yet monumental challenge.

Guidance is welcome and MOST appreciated. I'll get that pic posted as soon as I'm able.

Cheers,

B
Click to expand...
Beech can be collected easily in winter; success rate should be 80-90%. They are slow growing, as others have noted, so are a definite challenge taking longer than most species. You can get leaf reduction and ramification by diligently removing terminal buds in late winter, but be sure you get the branch thickening you want before moving into this phase of development as it will slow the growth a lot.

It's true that American beech make better large bonsai than small, but just as you've probably seen shohin maples with "too large" leaves why not beech?

One thing to bear in mind about beech is that as bonsai they don't like a lot of sun after early spring. This seems counter-intuitive as they are primary trees reaching 80 feet or more in height.

Good luck, and post some photos if you can.

Zach
 
I feel as though the curve is mitigated because the tree leans back but here is the suspect:

beech1.jpgbeech2.jpgbeech3.jpg

This one was sawed down sometime prior for an unknown reason:

beech4.jpg

Thanks for the responses so far.

@rockm - I'll try very hard to research this one out by next year, Slow growing trees, I imagine will test me greatly since a mistake will take longer to correct. I'm a young man and I hope have enough time to work on it. Thank you for the warning. Would you think this is big enough (20ft) to be of its own root system? I didn't know that about leaving a trunk chop. Sounds like if it's cut early enough while buds are swelling, then they may be fine to remove in 1 year but not 2. Am I understanding that correctly or should I prescribe to the chop and dig at the same time method?

@JudyB - I'm quite sure this is an American Beech but your post excited me. Not easy but not impossible. I checked out bonsai4me and saw but 3 articles. Am I missing any more? To reiterate what I already said, chop and dig at 2 different times. Trench with the roots this fall also. I can't defoliate because the tree is huge!

@Zach - Thanks for that info Zach. Can I treat this kind of like a hornbeam with its roots? I collected on in Feb and took it down to nothing and it's pushing like crazy!

B
 
Is that actually a beech? It's not growing from long pointed buds... Does that only happen the second flush?
 
Don't know if that's a beech...hard to tell where the foliage originates, but the bark looks rough at the base (a beech will not be rough), and the leaves in the close up appear to be from a different tree, and maybe not a beech.

At any rate, when you are collecting an understory deciduous tree like this, you really only want to consider the bottom 6-24", which becomes the trunk from which you grow new sections of trunk and branches. Don't get concerned with anything above knee level, you won't be taking it home...
 
I have a closer picture of the leaves and bark. I should have posted this earlier:

beech5.jpg

Can we safely say this isn't beech?
 
At first glance that looks like dogwood to me. That's the conclusion I reached via this identification guide for Virginia trees as well... though I can't tell for certain whether those leaves are alternate or opposite from your photos. I'm assuming opposite.
 
This actually looks similar to a species we have down here called silverbell. Bark looks like it too.

Zach
 
Not sure I've heard much about em. Perhaps I should pick my battles and find a new stump.

Thanks for saving me the time. I do have another tree which I'm certain is a beech on the chopping block for next year.

Live and learn.
 
rockm said:
The tree you mean to collect could be a root sucker from another tree and is living on the roots of its parent. Beech self-propagate that way (and I've found that it is more common than seed propagation in the woods near me). If the tree is connected to a larger root system, it might mean it has no roots of its own. You will have to ground layer it to force it to produce its own roots.
Click to expand...

FWIW, the beech on my parents' property seem to all be root suckers from other trees, so I would definitely keep this in mind if this ends up being a beech.
 
Looks to be a dogwood. The bark is a dead ringer for it. Beech always has very smooth, gunmetal grey bark. It looks almost like skin, even on very old trees. Dogwood develops warty, rough bark. FWIW, dogwood (Cornus florida) is the Va. (and N.C.) state flower and this species has special protection in the state.
 
I don't think it's dogwood, as dogwood has plated bark while this tree has furrowed bark. I mentioned silverbell because it and its cousins have furrowed bark.

Zach
 
Zach is most probably right. I am wrong about the bark. I usually assume the most common species are what folks run across. Dogwood is a lot more common around here than Silverbell. We are outside of the extreme northern range of the species, though, which is mostly the southern Appalachians.

http://na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/halesia/carolina.htm

Doesn't mean it's not silverbell, but it's not common here.
 
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