Hornbeam material-The Four Brothers

[BobbyLane]

Did they go willingly or did they put up a fight?

I will watch this one with interest. I liked the original multi-trunk structure but you obviously know what you're doing with these, so I trust the result will be excellent!

Ever seen the movie, the 'departed', well there was much in fighting....

So something had to give...

From Four brothers, to the Departed

 

[BobbyLane]

Not convinced by the previous hollowing work, i went in and done a little more
2019-01-21_02-59-54 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20190121_142117 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr


going forwards, this will likely be the front, but it will look great from all around with the changes made
2019-01-23_02-55-15 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

 

[BobbyLane]

i noticed this a few months when i lifted this one out the pot to have a look at the roots...it's built up a bit of mycorrhiza

today
20190322_160654 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

imagine how flat the root pad was when this went into the deeper pot,
this is how the root ball went in at start of last season
20180321_175048 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

now the roots are beginning to colonise the training pot

as ive said, most would have completely bare rooted this tree from the start, there is still quite a bit of nursery soil in that root pad, the tree has thrived

20190322_160706 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20190322_160718 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

deadwood is gaining character
20190322_160745 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

so anyway! this has now gone into my grow bed for a season or even two, the hole has been back filled with old bonsai soil, akadama and compost.....
i will continue to build a full canopy on this tree, this will happen much quicker in the ground while i work on other projects. this will be left alone to grow out, it won't look pretty for a while.....every so often i'll go out there and just hedge prune it. let all the primary branches thicken up. in a few weeks i will remove the wire there
20190322_161256 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20190322_161610 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

we can come back later in the season and see how well it grew

this is something ive thought about doing while its in the ground, cut at red and just let the surrounding shoots extend into a broom canopy, i think that will also suit the tree at this stage, otherwise i could see some thickening occurring at that junction
20190322_160745 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

 

[BobbyLane]

i took this shot a few weeks ago after slightly reducing the main trunk to a lower shoot for better taper... you can see the new leader in top right
loads of branches all over now and shooting from the base, going to be an interesting tree. and i should get some swelling in the base too. might dig it up next spring atm its a dense bush

 

[ConorDash]

Nice, good load of growth, even far down at the base.

I still wish you had kept the 4 brothers.. I much preferred it.. but this isn't the first time nor will be the last, we disagree .

This has given me an idea actually. I dug up a stump (hoped to do something with it but it was pretty much dead, only saw some TINY bit of life right at base) so it was dug up last weekend, and its just a huge bush of branches.. Im going to get it out of the bin and use it to practice carving on. I've never carved, despite having the tools (although maybe not best tooltips for it yet). Ill do that this weekend! Should be fun. Shame though, it was a great old stump, dont know the species. A very common hedge shrub, must have been growing there happily for 20-25+ years. Killer to dig up.

 

[BobbyLane]

Nice, good load of growth, even far down at the base.

I still wish you had kept the 4 brothers.. I much preferred it.. but this isn't the first time nor will be the last, we disagree .

This has given me an idea actually. I dug up a stump (hoped to do something with it but it was pretty much dead, only saw some TINY bit of life right at base) so it was dug up last weekend, and its just a huge bush of branches.. Im going to get it out of the bin and use it to practice carving on. I've never carved, despite having the tools (although maybe not best tooltips for it yet). Ill do that this weekend! Should be fun. Shame though, it was a great old stump, dont know the species. A very common hedge shrub, must have been growing there happily for 20-25+ years. Killer to dig up.

i somewhat agree, sometimes i look back and think maybe i could of left it. the material certainly had many options. its bold decisions like these that you can learn from. i may come across similar material in the future and ill know right away what i can do with it.

 

[ConorDash]

i somewhat agree, sometimes i look back and think maybe i could of left it. the material certainly had many options. its bold decisions like these that you can learn from. i may come across similar material in the future and ill know right away what i can do with it.

Yeah fair enough and I wouldn't regret making such big decisions.. thats the kinda thing which keeps me from making these big decisions! Either way you have a future image for the tree and it will work.

 

[misfit11]

This is going to be a fantastic tree. Thanks for sharing, Bobby.

 

[BobbyLane]

sometimes i give it a dose of liquid ferts, but theres loadsa chicken poo in the soil here too, just a bush now.
without the pics i would be clueless to whats going on. a few weeks ago i had to remove a branch that would result in unwanted swelling on the main trunk...

 

[BobbyLane]

a year on since it was heavily reduced and planted in the ground,

developing some transition and taper in the remaining trunks now

its just been hacked back too, but the leader hasnt been touched, the leader is around 2ft long atm.
i hacked it back because i want to begin building taper in the branches.

some of the branches were becoming long, straight and course. if you let that continue i run the risk of interior shoots and nodes dying off. there are some tight, short nodes in there, i should get another spurt before end of season with the mini heat wave coming up. its just been drenched in miracle gro

 

[BobbyLane]

Here's a winter update, now back in a pot.
The taper is developing nicely, the leader is a little straight but i'd like to keep some height in the tree...

 

[BobbyLane]

Some angles


Just needs time to fill in now

 

[MACH5]

Looking strong Bobby!

 

[BobbyLane]

Looking strong Bobby!

Thanks Mach!
Im interested to know what you would have done with the material had it been yours? i never usually ask i tend to look at what others do with similar material and pick a path.
I think this had 3 options and i went through all of them and got it down to the smallest tree possible. I already know what Brian would have done

as the tree grows out this presents another great option, its just one of those that will have multiple fronts

 

[MACH5]

Thanks Mach!
Im interested to know what you would have done with the material had it been yours? i never usually ask i tend to look at what others do with similar material and pick a path.
I think this had 3 options and i went through all of them and got it down to the smallest tree possible. I already know what Brian would have done

as the tree grows out this presents another great option, its just one of those that will have multiple fronts
View attachment 345062

Bobby I like this front the best. To me there is no other view better than this one in my opinion.

 

[BobbyLane]

Sold this a while ago, I was sent some recent pics of the tree today

 

[The Warm Canuck]

It's a great tree.

What do you use to hollow your material?

 

[BobbyLane]

It's a great tree.

What do you use to hollow your material?

Mainly a Makita die grinder and a dremel. Pretty much the same stuff Graham potter uses in the carving videos.