Five Year Native Tree Challenge: Gabler's Ironwood

[Gabler]

I dug up this Ostrya virginiana "ironwood tree" three years ago, and I stuck it in this old, rusted-out wash tub as a field-growing container. I chopped the trunk to keep the foliage in proportion to the few remaining roots, and I haven't touched it since. I'll pull it out and see what kind of condition it's in this spring. The species is both native to and abundant throughout the Delmarva Peninsula, and the trunk measures about two and a quarter inches or roughly six centimeters at this time, so I believe it meets the rules requirements.

 

[Gabler]

 

[Gabler]

 

[Zach Smith]

This is an American hornbeam, carpinus caroliniana, not a hophornbeam. Good potential, regardless.

 

[Gabler]

This is an American hornbeam, carpinus caroliniana, not a hophornbeam. Good potential, regardless.

Whatever it is, we call them ironwood trees around here, and according to the local Department of Natural Resources office, they're native. Based on the USDA website, ironwood is a common name for hophornbeam, but you seem to know what you're talking about, so I'll definitely look into it. Thanks!

 

[Gabler]

This is an American hornbeam, carpinus caroliniana, not a hophornbeam. Good potential, regardless.

Yup. You're right. Hop hornbeam has craggy bark. There is no such tree in this area.

 

[Zach Smith]

Whatever it is, we call them ironwood trees around here, and according to the local Department of Natural Resources office, they're native. Based on the USDA website, ironwood is a common name for hophornbeam, but you seem to know what you're talking about, so I'll definitely look into it. Thanks!

Both hornbeam and hophornbeam are known colloquially as ironwood. Hornbeam is much easier to collected than hophornbeam. Hophornbeam has persistent foliage through winter, making them easy to spot when it's time to collect. Hornbeam can also hold its leaves through winter, but only sometimes and it's not that predictable. The bark is the dead giveaway, hophornbeam having what I call a "shreddy" bark while hornbeam is smooth. With that said, I occasionally run across a hornbeam with rough bark; they are less than 1% of the population, and I don't know if it's really a distinct variety.

 

[Timbo]

Wrong forum, no idea how to delete.

 

[Gabler]

As the weather is warming, I figured I'd go ahead and pot up the tree. Unfortunately much of the root growth went straight down out the bottom of the collection pot, so the fine roots are a bit lacking. That said, the root collar sent out some new nebari in the correct spot, so I'm happy about that. Here's some pictures of the tree yesterday with the field soil removed and the suckers and superfluous branches removed.

 

[Gabler]

And here is the tree in a large pot for training.

 

[Lazylightningny]

American hornbeams love throwing out those big honkin primary roots

 

[Gabler]

In hindsight, there were a few dozen other sizable saplings with better nebari, but I was new to bonsai, and didn't I didn't know what I was looking for.

 

[Gabler]

When I began styling this tree for further development, I was pleased that it had grown several thick branches at the top, right next to the chop, all potentially great leaders. If otherwise the branch selection was poor, at least I'd be able to develop a good trunk easily. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized I'd end up with a poor tree in the end. The first ten inches of the trunk are ramrod straight, and then the new leader had a significant curve to it after that long section of straight trunk. I thought about wiring the leader to make it straighter, and for a while I was convinced that was the correct way to proceed. But you know the saying. Murder your darlings. The more I thought about it, the harder it was to convince myself that my chosen leader was in fact the correct choice. After pondering the decision for a few days, I knew I needed to act. I chopped the trunk again just a bit farther down, and I plan to train the tree as an informal broom. I think I like the overall proportions better this way, too. For now, I'll leave the big left-hand branch as a sacrificial branch to at least prevent inverse taper if not improve overall taper. I'll also be allowing the other four main branches to grow out more or less freely for a few years to thicken up in proportion to the the overall thickness of the trunk.

 

[Gabler]

 

[Gabler]

A quick update.

 

[Gabler]

It’s still a funny-looking tree right now, but I hope to make it into a decent broom, eventually.

 

[Gabler]

This tree is out of the running. It's been growing like a weed, but it's not going to be ready in less than two years. When I entered it, I had no idea what I was doing. Now, I have a little bit of an idea of what I'm doing, and I'd rather develop the tree properly than try to style it too early.

For now, I'm just growing it out to develop some primary branches and heal the chop wound, so I probably won't have any further updates until after the contest is over. At that point, I may or may not post a regular progression thread for the tree, depending on how it's turning out.

 

[River's Edge]

This tree is out of the running. It's been growing like a weed, but it's not going to be ready in less than two years. When I entered it, I had no idea what I was doing. Now, I have a little bit of an idea of what I'm doing, and I'd rather develop the tree properly than try to style it too early.

For now, I'm just growing it out to develop some primary branches and heal the chop wound, so I probably won't have any further updates until after the contest is over. At that point, I may or may not post a regular progression thread for the tree, depending on how it's turning out.

The tree has a promising start, but you're right things take time. The key is to enjoy the journey. Five years for collected trees is usually the beginning of developing a proper root ball and perhaps some initial styling if branches were present in the right locations upon collection.

 

[Gabler]

a proper root ball

That's the biggest issue. The roots are going to need a lot of work. When I collected the tree, I didn't bury the nebari enough, and now the surface roots are abruptly truncated, with feeder roots growing straight down out of the bottom. I subsequently buried the nebari deeper, but it's going to take some work to correct the problem. I had considered abandoning this tree and starting over with better material, but I think that correcting the nebari will be good practice, and I can apply my experience to better material in the future. In the meantime, I have several smaller trees for the native tree challenge.

 

[Gabler]

Since the tree was growing vigorously last year, and it's been three years since I touched the roots, I figured I'd go ahead and sort them out and move the tree to a bag to grow out a bit more. It turns out the roots weren't as bad as I had remembered.







Although there were two tiers of roots, I figured out I could remove just one of the higher roots and change the planting angle to put all of the remaining roots on a single plane. The cut is directly below a large branch, and there are more roots below it, so it should ultimately heal well.