I have a European Hornbeam that I bought recently. It is about 22" tall and has a good apex with lots of nice branches, but it does not have a lot of other branches going up the trunk. The base is about 1". It was shipped in a bonsai pot. I want it to get much bigger trunk wise and grow more branches up the trunk. I am going to remore it from the bonsai pot and plant it in a good sized grow pot, but do not know how to stimulate more branching. I have attached a picture. The bottom branch is one branch that goes to both sides of the tree. I would be sure that is not acceptable either. Help with this would be appreciated. Thanks, Peter
Hornbeam questions
- Thread starter August44
- Start date
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
looks like there is one or two dormant nodes on the trunk. you should be able to stimulate these and maybe others, by cutting the existing branches back to shoots closer to the trunk. or/and reducing the height of the trunk. then once in the grow box just leave it to grow un pruned if you want trunk thickening. these thicken fast in the ground. ive done all my pruning/hard pruning already, some in the last couple days. if i pick up more trees next week i will do more hard pruning next week or whenever really. other views may differ
Hello Bobbylane and thanks for the reply and help. I am a bit new to all of this and would like to do it right verses mangling the tree. Would you mind photo shopping my tree with red lines where I should be cutting things back and reducing the height? Thank, Peter
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
if it was mine i would chop here, there isnt much going on for the trunk above the red line....these types of trunk cuts are made by hobbyists every week, there are numerous threads describing these types of cuts
one i did myself
march 2017
20170321_150111 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
tried it at this length
IMG_4091 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
before going in for the big chop
2017-03-30_06-28-16 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
sometimes you have to be brutal to be kind
dec 2018, just ONE season, look at that leader go
20181208_101931 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
i need to tidy up the bruises and apply paste
at the red line for your tree
one i did myself
march 2017
20170321_150111 by Bobby Lane, on Flickrtried it at this length
IMG_4091 by Bobby Lane, on Flickrbefore going in for the big chop
2017-03-30_06-28-16 by Bobby Lane, on Flickrsometimes you have to be brutal to be kind
dec 2018, just ONE season, look at that leader go
20181208_101931 by Bobby Lane, on Flickri need to tidy up the bruises and apply paste
at the red line for your tree
Attachments
just.wing.it
Deadwood Head
Bobby, on that last pic, with the strong leader.if it was mine i would chop here, there isnt much going on for the trunk above the red line....these types of trunk cuts are made by hobbyists every week, there are numerous threads describing these types of cuts
one i did myself
march 2017
tried it at this length
before going in for the big chop
sometimes you have to be brutal to be kind
dec 2018, just ONE season, look at that leader go
i need to tidy up the bruises and apply paste
at the red line for your tree
Did you remove other shoots throughout the season to get that much vigor in that one?
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
yes because the shoots were clustering in one spot and didnt want too much thickening which would result in inverse. maybe something will pop lower this season and will let that go
you can see how thick the other shoot was getting which was pruned off
Ouch! Bobby, I am trying to create a Hornbeam of the style in this link. How did they get the branch structure and truck that it has? I know I would probably not live to see it finished, but would like to go in that direction. Thanks!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138823275@N03/albums
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138823275@N03/albums
Last edited:
just.wing.it
Deadwood Head
That's what I figured....just wanted to verify.
Thank you Sir!
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
that tree was grown from seed for many years.i think you need to do a lot more research and study to get a basic grasp.
Ok...what book do you recommend that I read to get the basic grasp on how to obtain/create multiple branches yet keep an unmarred trunk from a large trunk chop on a hornbeam? Do you think the Hornbeam in the video I mentioned was trunk chopped somewhere back down the road? I'm just trying to learn something. I am very much aware that my scrawny Hornbeam will never look like that tree in the video. I would just like to have more branches to work with on the tree that I have, and maybe a big trunk chop is the only way to do that...I don't really know. Thanks
Similar threads
