Korean Hornbeam... hard (or maybe not) chop

[Adamski77]

BNuts... looking for advise regarding my Korean hornbeam. I bought it in 2020 but it had interesting 3 years.
- first season it's been quite weak so I did limited pruning on it
- second season I had to move from Korea to China... so I left the tree in Korea for one year and tree was unpruned for entire season
- over last winter I brought the tree to China and potted back into container.
It's growing well but because of lack of pruning the growth escaped from the trunk and now it became extremely leggy. It has a nice base and trunk so obviously I want to leverage this and make it a better tree but wondering on one thing.
I don't have possibility to grow in the ground (which I would do for this one) so the tree needs to stay in container... but I wanted to heavy prune leggy branches next season (kind of where the red lines are)... push the green towards the trunk and start ramifying the branches. My question is if I can do it while tree is in container?
Concern is that this one did drop some branches before... I circled in blue one of the branches that I previously pruned harder and subsequently the tree dropped it.

All advises/opinions very much appreciated. Thanks a lot for all your help.

 

[BobbyLane]

Good decision to take the branches in, so many would just leave it as is, will be a better quality in future.
Allowing it to spread its legs in a slightly bigger training pot wont hurt, I wouldnt do any root work. If you leave it in this pot It should be fine though. You can ramify trees successfully in bonsai pots.

 

[Shibui]

I would also go for the hard cut back. Hornbeams seem to respond well to hard pruning so you should get new shoots all over now that it is healthy.
Mine are very strong up top but weaker below so the top needs to be cut harder and more often than low branches.

This one has a very strong lower trunk and good branches but the top of the trunk appears to have been grown in a single year or maybe 2 so there is a top section that looks longer with little taper. I would also look for places where the whole top of the trunk could be reduced to leave a new, lower apex.

 

[Adamski77]

thanks a lot for quick answer. Couple of things:
- first a question: I assume timing for this is next year end of winter/early spring as the buds start breaking?
- @Shibui ... totally agree the top of the tree needs a solution... will cut top harder than rest and see where it goes... take it from there when new growth shows up.

 

[BobbyLane]

You can do a cut back now, if you would like to see back budding over summer.

 

[Shibui]

Pruning now should also result in shorter internodes on regrowth.
End of winter prune often results in very strong new shoots with long internodes.

 

[Hartinez]

Third for hard cutback. While it’s a bit anecdotal and a different species, I just did a hard cutback on my birch after doing a semi hard cutback at spring repot. It’s responded phenomenally.

 

[Shogun610]

Cut back hard but leave areas untouched some be it has leaves. You could also had cut back lower branches this year and cut hard back upper apex next year. Then the leaves upper apex partial defoliation

 

[JudyB]

I would do a harder cutback now on the top and a lesser cutback on the lower branches. This might give you some opportunity for more growth lower this year. Then pull back to your desired framework next season. I have found these to ramify just fine in pot culture.

 

[Tieball]

A different approach. More wide. Less tall. I was more radical in my Korean Hornbeam direction. I wanted a more defined horizontal image rather than vertical. The cut roll-over healing was quick every year and still is quick to heal. I let the lower branches grow out and kept the upward growth limited. The curvature of branches was accomplished with guy-wired growth in some instances but mostly through pruning. The tree back buds really well. Just a different image contribution.

The photos show the Korean Hornbeam leaf growth this year in spring (right now) after root pruning and eliminating 2/3 of the roots about 25 days ago. This tree stands with a 2.75” (69.85mm) trunk, a height of 17” (431.8mm) and a width of 26” (660.4mm). The top overview is slightly oval in shape.

 

[Adamski77]

Thank you all for words of wisdom… made me much comfortable. Not being able to grow on the ground thought there will be a problem with fixing this one but seems there are options. Leaning towards hacking top this year and let’s see what happens… like in @Tieball post… that’s probably best choice. Will end up with much more proportional tree.
Thank you so much for chiming in… appreciate your time. Will keep updates here.

 

[BobbyLane]

Thank you all for words of wisdom… made me much comfortable. Not being able to grow on the ground thought there will be a problem with fixing this one but seems there are options. Leaning towards hacking top this year and let’s see what happens… like in @Tieball post… that’s probably best choice. Will end up with much more proportional tree.
Thank you so much for chiming in… appreciate your time. Will keep updates here.

Ground growing or transferring to a large grow box is often suggested for young material, but in this case you have a good sized tree with good bones that just needs a bit of cosmetic work. The primary branches are already thick enough for the size of the trunk and dont look out of place, they just need to be cut back to stimulate inner twigging. A few of them do actually have taper and angular movement. Its not really a good pic to assess whats going on properly. If this was mine and handed to me in the summer, I might be inclined to partially defoliate and begin wiring/styling while cutting back here n there.

I picked this one up in the growing season, was also leggy, looked much better after a good cut back and defoliation. Branches not as developed as yours though.

Zelkova Material

I picked this one up over the weekend, cost me £65-$82 its probably worth a little more now after the work done, but just in the basic stages its been produced from an airlayer, the radial spread is very good. a little leggy, i had a good look and cut it right back then defoliated. i know this...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Adamski77]

Ground growing or transferring to a large grow box is often suggested for young material, but in this case you have a good sized tree with good bones that just needs a bit of cosmetic work. The primary branches are already thick enough for the size of the trunk and dont look out of place, they just need to be cut back to stimulate inner twigging. A few of them do actually have taper and angular movement. Its not really a good pic to assess whats going on properly. If this was mine and handed to me in the summer, I might be inclined to partially defoliate and begin wiring/styling while cutting back here n there.

I picked this one up in the growing season, was also leggy, looked much better after a good cut back and defoliation. Branches not as developed as yours though.

Zelkova Material

I picked this one up over the weekend, cost me £65-$82 its probably worth a little more now after the work done, but just in the basic stages its been produced from an airlayer, the radial spread is very good. a little leggy, i had a good look and cut it right back then defoliated. i know this...

www.bonsainut.com

Thank you… very good read!

 

[BobbyLane]

 

[Adamski77]

Thanks a lot @BobbyLane for extra education… so much appreciated… especially the part when he cuts the branches beyond any leaves and just leave stubs makes me more comfortable with going hard after some branches. I’m planning to spend next weekend to work on my hornbeam… will post update after that.

 

[Adamski77]

Went ahead today and chopped the top… quite a lot… would say 30-40% of all leaves were sitting on the top… but decision has been made. As I was spending time with the tree I discovered several places with nice buds from old wood… hopefully my today action will result in more. Particularly one on the top is of a big interest to me… might turn into future into top of the tree. Left the old branch next to it to pull the juices through with smaller chances of significant dieback. Bottom branches left for next year.

Now time for his bigger brother … with the same history behind

 

[BobbyLane]

The top would still bother me if was mine, especially that heavier top left branch. I know I would make one of these chops,

 

[Adamski77]

The top would still bother me if was mine, especially that heavier top left branch. I know I would make one of these chops,
View attachment 491977

View attachment 491978

Thanks… and I agree. I’ll see what happens this year… cutting is never a problem . Appreciate your advise… I’m sort of ‘chicken’ when it comes to hard cuts…

 

[Tieball]

The tree should put out buds everywhere now without the top leaves. This is a good time if the year for a chop like this on a Korean Hornbeam. Now is the more difficult time of wait-and-watch for the new bud development. I get fascinated as the new, and old, growth unfolds and develops as a new tree image evolves. I guess I’m more easily entertained by something not so complicated but highly creative as nature takes center stage.

 

[Adamski77]

Today bigger brother went to workshop… primarily trimming but also cleaned up some stubs, little branches plus started to fix some big scars. Also wired some lower branches to grow up as it started to look like weeping hornbeam . Overall pretty happy with outcome… tree grew way out of proportions last season… leafless photo from earlier this year for comparison. Still way to go but bones are present.