New Hornbeam

Jcmmaple

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So I went out hunting today for new material at a friends house and found this guy, there are more to collect there but didn’t have time today. Crazy thing is in the woods behind his house is a creek and apparently beavers. Well to some it may be a huge problem, they are pesky and cause all kinds of problems but for people hunting for bonsai they are nature’s little helpers. There are 3 more I’m going to collect that have some potential, good thing is the beavers cut them low and created taper for me. Now the question is how do 9F95E030-CB9E-41AC-B127-7C4C3C384C16.jpegBF46FF74-3788-4779-A81B-9D259A29157C.jpeg829417B6-FAF2-4CA9-BC1D-B49F493954EB.jpegA31E56CE-94FA-4B69-856C-1AFBA718BA76.jpegyou repay a beaver? This has two crazy high roots, which I am considering keeping just for some character, I feel like this should be getting worked on by @Walter Pall or @Sandevbonsai. For now I’m going to let it recovery and grow and then I will work on branches.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Interesting. Myself, I would remove the highest up of the stilt roots, but that is my personal taste, if you like 'em, keep 'em. Its okay.

I really like the rippling muscle like texture of both trunks, THis is your tree's best features. Nice. Don't hide this feature, keep foliage arranged so one gets a good peak at the trunks.

Suggestion. Sooner than later, this week even, remove any of the suckers less than (lower than) 2 inches from the soil line. These branches can act as ''suckers'' and cause weak response from upper branches, and fewer back buds on the upper trunks, where you want the most activity in spring. So get rid of the low suckers, or they will take over at the expense of the older trunks.
 

Jcmmaple

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Was planning on removing the really big one today but thanks for the info on them wearing the upper portion, definitely do not want that. I’m torn on taking the root circled in green because it has a slight hole there that if I were to remove the root I could carve a bigger hole, but at the same time I think it’s cool. I should probably have removed more roots than what I did, but I was afraid to remove to much. I kept as many fine feeder roots as possible, but will remove bigger ones later. Been reading some of @Zach Smith stuff and it had me itching to go, had to do something it was nice outside today so I enjoyed myself. Now I need to start stocking more soil, collecting seems to be more addictive than having trees. Hopefully there isn’t a divorce in the future, haha. DC32823C-5ADE-4562-BF77-43F40D3AE1F4.jpeg945B0C44-D337-43DB-AC04-FFC7BF14401B.jpeg
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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I would get rid of the suckers circled in red, you got it.

I would have to see in person to be certain, but the green arrow is the one I'd eliminate, and I'd keep the green circle, as you could carve it out later, in a year or two.
 

Jcmmaple

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Yeah looking at it more it will be hard to get in a good pot with that root there, one seems more like it. I will leave it for now I may change my mind. Thanks for the help
 

rockm

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Get rid of the high roots. You're mistaking "unusual" with "ugly" Those high roots are ugly and make the trunk look weird and small. You want to use the tree's natural root crown--which is readily seen on the base of the smaller trunk. With hornbeam, their nice root crown is often silted in, and higher roots develop as soil and mud accumulates over it stimulating the tree to make roots higher up on the trunk.

I would remove the larger trunk entirely...it's not all that attractive and will become an issue down the road...
 

rockm

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Thanks for your input, what do you mean the larger trunk will become an issue

Visually it is a bother. It's uninteresting and has no roots on its left side, including the gap between the soil and the wood underneath it. It has no root crown. It may also be developing some inverse taper from some angles.

To me, it looks like a sucker shoot from the smaller trunk that eventually became dominant.

It will remain that way if it isn't removed.

makes the tree look unbalanced and a bit weird.

Horticulturally, if it is a dominant sucker, it will probably only get worse at the expense of the much finer right hand trunk...
 
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