Stan Kengai
Omono
Back-story: I have an American Hornbeam that was collected from a stream bed last spring. It is currently growing in a garden bed and will probably be there for several more years as the trunk is only about 2" right now. (Aside: I know, why not collect a larger tree? This tree was growing like a bush, and has good movement in the trunk rather than the ramrod straight trunks you normally see with this species.)
Problem: The tree had about 2 inches of silt deposited on it, and the fine feeder roots were growing up and matted into the deposited soil immediately around the tree (which made for easy collecting). Over the summer, I slowly exposed those feeder roots to kill them back, as new feeders grew further down. What is left is a tangle of unevenly placed would-be surface roots with no butressing or trunk flare. Therefore, I want to ground layer the tree, and I would prefer to use the wire tourniquet method. I do not want to entirely ring the bark on this large of a tree. However, I'm afraid that a tourniquet would not be very effective on this tree because of its uneven and rippled shape and its slow growth.
Question: Can I use a hybrid method of wiring and removing bark where the wire will not immediately cut in? Could the tourniquet alone work, just taking somewhat longer? Can I use the tourniquet and concurrently do root-grafts to fill the gaps?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Stan
Problem: The tree had about 2 inches of silt deposited on it, and the fine feeder roots were growing up and matted into the deposited soil immediately around the tree (which made for easy collecting). Over the summer, I slowly exposed those feeder roots to kill them back, as new feeders grew further down. What is left is a tangle of unevenly placed would-be surface roots with no butressing or trunk flare. Therefore, I want to ground layer the tree, and I would prefer to use the wire tourniquet method. I do not want to entirely ring the bark on this large of a tree. However, I'm afraid that a tourniquet would not be very effective on this tree because of its uneven and rippled shape and its slow growth.
Question: Can I use a hybrid method of wiring and removing bark where the wire will not immediately cut in? Could the tourniquet alone work, just taking somewhat longer? Can I use the tourniquet and concurrently do root-grafts to fill the gaps?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Stan