japanese hornbeam urban yamadori

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Hello to everyone. I have been in the bonsai hobby for 12 years now and after being laid off (6 month vacation) I ended up having to sell my collection to pay the bills.I now have new gainful employment and decided this year to get serious.I found this tree 5 years ago in a nursery landscape and after negotiating a price with the owner got the ok to collect the tree.Well fast forward 5 years I recieved a call from the new manager of the nursery and said she was going to re landscape the office and if I still wanted the tree to come and dig it up b4 it went in to the compost pile with the rest of the stuff.I convinced her to let it go dormant b4 I dug it and the week after thanks giving I dug this monster.it is currently in a 2 foot by 4 foot plastic cement mixing tub and the trunk diameter is 12-15 inches depending on where you measure from.I will let it grow and recover for 1 growing season then the fun begins.I will post updated pictures as time progresses on this baby.The first pic is the projected front and following pics are other sides.Enjoy
 

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mcpesq817

Omono
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Nice score Seth - will be looking forward to seeing your tree's development over time. Congratulations on the new job :)
 

rockm

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Got any preliminary design plans for this?
 
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Got any preliminary design plans for this?

Yes the first pic will be the front and all the larger branches will be removed and carved to let heal then ramification will commence.It will end up being a sumo style very rapid taper from the bottom to the top total height will be approx 18-22 inches from soil level.
 
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Nice score Seth - will be looking forward to seeing your tree's development over time. Congratulations on the new job :)

Thanks, It wil be an amazing tree when I get finished with it.And thanks it feels good to have a constant source of income again:)
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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You will have your work cut out for you :D
 
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What is everyones thoughts on going ahead and removing the larger branches this spring.I was able to retain 90% of the root system and if I could get a jump on healing and directing growth to the branches I am going to keep it would give me a head start on healing and branch growing
 

rockm

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I'd get rid of them ASAP, but your biggest problem is going to be the scars left behind.

Hornbeam are notorious for closing big pruning wounds VERY slowly. In a container that process will slow to a veritable crawl...

If this were mine, I'd hack all unnecessary branching off this spring and plant this in as much soil as possible (ground would be best) and begin healing the chop marks. That could take a few years, but when you're done, the results will look pretty convincing. You will also have to work on those huge anchor roots. It appears there are two or three big dominant lateral surface roots--which is too coarse. You can work to ramify those while working the top every alternate two years...

Another, more immediate, way to go would be to emphasize the scars, hollowing them out, connecting them under living trunk, etc. Given their number and considerable size, however, this could wind up making the trunk look like Swiss cheese...
 
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Thanks for the input .The tub it is currently growing in is 2 foot by 4 foot.I could put it back in the ground but I think I will keep it in the current tub for the next year at lest .I do want to heal over the cuts and not hollow the trunk.I will only have 2 semi large wounds to heal over that will be visable from the front so that was the deciding factor on not hollowing . I am only 32 so I have some time and patience to get the wounds healed.As for the roots there is a tremendous amount of smaller roots all around the base that was why I was able to keep so many they radiate around the tree almost 360 deg.However there are a few larger dominant ones I plan on spliting and healing to make them less heavy.
 
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