CWTurner
Omono
I collected this American Hornbeam from upstate Pennsylvania early in the Spring of 2014.
It was growing in a marshy hillside (hence the uneven base) with a nice mass of fine roots. I merely lopped 4-5 big horizontal roots and harvested it in about 5 minutes. I cut the trunk down to about 20" or so, bare rooted it, put it in my bonsai mix, and let her grow.
The tree threw out a bunch of sprouts, with plenty of healthy leaves but nothing was more than about 6" up from the base. The tree bark appears alive still, up to the top of the cut. (I did get one tiny bud about 18" up the trunk late in summer, but it died off)
My questions:
Will I get sprouts higher up the trunk next spring?
Will it help to get those sprouts if I chop the trunk down to about 10-12" which Is where I'd hope the final trunk height to be?
Will pruning off some of this year's sprouts force more growth, and if so, will that be higher up the trunk?
Thanks for your opinions.
CW
It was growing in a marshy hillside (hence the uneven base) with a nice mass of fine roots. I merely lopped 4-5 big horizontal roots and harvested it in about 5 minutes. I cut the trunk down to about 20" or so, bare rooted it, put it in my bonsai mix, and let her grow.
The tree threw out a bunch of sprouts, with plenty of healthy leaves but nothing was more than about 6" up from the base. The tree bark appears alive still, up to the top of the cut. (I did get one tiny bud about 18" up the trunk late in summer, but it died off)
My questions:
Will I get sprouts higher up the trunk next spring?
Will it help to get those sprouts if I chop the trunk down to about 10-12" which Is where I'd hope the final trunk height to be?
Will pruning off some of this year's sprouts force more growth, and if so, will that be higher up the trunk?
Thanks for your opinions.
CW