Weekend Collection

[Traken]

My wife and I had the pleasure of being able to take a road trip and impose on @Leo in N E Illinois and his hospitality this weekend by visiting his farm and helping to remove some "weeds." Being a complete idiot, I didn't bother to grab any photos pulling stuff out of his fields, but I thought it was rather fun. It's a good thing it's a couple hours away, or I'd probably deforest his entire farm. lol.

We were able to snag a trio of siberian elms and one hornbeam. They've all been transferred to wooden boxes filled with pumice. I'll probably try to make threads for each of them if/when they recover, so that you can see how my newb self screws them up.

Haha. I apologize for two of the pictures. I snapped quick ones for the small elm and hornbeam, just to have something on hand, but by the time I was able to snag a good photo with something for scale, they were buried under this delightful middle of April snowstorm. Thanks, weather. Appreciate it. I'll try to get pics of all angles once they melt out in a couple days.

This was the first elm we grabbed. That sandy Michigan soil makes me detest my clay nonsense here at home. It was almost nice to dig a tree out of.



Nothing too fancy, but it has a little movement on it, and it was a good tree to start with.

After the little tree came out so easily, I set my sights on something a little larger. This one has a 4" diameter trunk and, alas, was a tad more stubborn to get out of the ground.



The third tree we grabbed was a hornbeam.



It will probably get cut back at some point, but the Y at the top looked really nice to me, at least at the time. It's probably way too noodly-thin with it, though. We'll see.

The last tree we grabbed, I completely overlooked. There was a tree growing through one of Leo's blueberry bushes, and it was just a pencil straight shoot, sticking up through the bush that I didn't even think to look at the base of, until Leo told me to actually get down there and check. I'm glad he did. It was a stump that had been repeatedly hacked away at but refused to give up and kept throwing branches out.



I can't wait to see what happens with that nonsense. lol

Leo, thanks again. I'd love to come and help you weed again, anytime. Haha.

 

[Lou T]

That last one is really cool. Any idea on the species?
Edit: nvm just saw Siberian Elm

 

[Traken]

@Lou T that one’s a siberian elm as well. Sorry about that.

 

[sorce]

Damn! I totally forgot that is one of 3.8 billion things I gotta do!

Nice!

Sorce

 

[Traken]

Damn! I totally forgot that is one of 3.8 billion things I gotta do!

Nice!

Sorce

You definitely need to get out there at some point. Regardless of harvesting, it's just a really nice place to wander the woods for a bit.

 

[Traken]

Huzzah! 2 live already.

The chunky-trunk has buds popping on the branch sticking out and what looks to be some others on where a branch was cut off up against the base of the trunk. It's on the backside, and I didn't snag any pics of there yet. Such negligence. Heh. There isn't anything yet on the main trunk, but hopefully stuff will push out there, too.



The stump-lump has buds popping all over the place. I'm so glad this one seems to be rebounding.



Sorry for the trash pics. I was in a hurry to grab them, so I couldn't really set them up well and frame things properly.

Nothing yet on the hornbeam or smaller siberian elm, but hey, it's only been 3 weeks. I'm impressed with how fast these two have rebounded, given how few, if any, roots they had on them.

 

[Forrestford]

Any reason your keeping that hornbeam long? I feel like you're going to have to cut it back eventually, might as well do it now so a new leader can take off and the wound can start to heal down low. Just my 2 cents. I collected a hop hornbeam (i think) and I did the same thing. After it starting budding I realized i should of got rid of the boring section earlier. So I chopped it! no after pic.. but right after that second branch.
Anyways, Im no pro in the matter. Great finds tho!

 

[Traken]

Any reason your keeping that hornbeam long? I feel like you're going to have to cut it back eventually, might as well do it now so a new leader can take off and the wound can start to heal down low. Just my 2 cents. I collected a hop hornbeam (i think) and I did the same thing. After it starting budding I realized i should of got rid of the boring section earlier. So I chopped it! no after pic.. but right after that second branch. View attachment 241158
Anyways, Im no pro in the matter. Great finds tho!

Mainly noob fear, more than anything. Haha. It was a neat, albeit far too lanky, little tree that I was fond of the shape of, so I wussed out when collecting it and didn't cut it back any further. Truth be told, the large trunked elm probably should have been reduced further as well, but I'm a wuss. lol. It was my first time collecting, and I think the thrill of, "Oh look, trees!" took more priority in my mind than finding things with a ton of character. I never would have even noticed that mess of a stump if it weren't for Leo.

That's cool motion on the bottom of your hornbeam. You should grab an after pic at some point. I'd be curious to see what it looks like now.

 

[Silentrunning]

Any reason your keeping that hornbeam long? I feel like you're going to have to cut it back eventually, might as well do it now so a new leader can take off and the wound can start to heal down low. Just my 2 cents. I collected a hop hornbeam (i think) and I did the same thing. After it starting budding I realized i should of got rid of the boring section earlier. So I chopped it! no after pic.. but right after that second branch. View attachment 241158
Anyways, Im no pro in the matter. Great finds tho!

Good advice. Also, I lost 2 Hornbeam and I think it was due to root stress from movement. I collected 6 last year and wired 4 in their boxes. All 4 are doing great. The two I didn’t wire down died. From now on all harvested trees get cut short and wired solid.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Hi Jordan,
I've been busy the last week or so, have just gotten to this thread and am working on a lengthy post for your blueberry thread.

That is great, you are getting buds on all the elms. I'm glad ''stumpy lump'' has a lot of new buds. While it is really ugly, and has zones of reverse taper, resist urges to style it much this year. Start practicing carving on pieces of dead wood and other junk, so that in a couple years when you have a plan, you can tackle this beast with some carving skill. By the way, Ulmus rubra is also native to the farm, there is a chance Stumpy Lump is Ulmus rubra, the Slippery elm, or it might be a hybrid between Siberian elm and Slippery elm. Their flowering seasons overlap and it is common for them to hybridize.

In 2 years, when you repot ''Stumpy Lump'', I would stand it up a little more vertical. The angle it is at is a bit horizontal for my tastes. Changing the angle might lead to inspiration for design. But don't worry about picking front or design for a few years. In the mean time, consider all the various possibilities.

About the hornbeam. It is tall but part of the charm of hornbeam is the smooth bark. A tall tree can show off the smooth bark especially if it is unblemished by scars and fresh cut wounds. You could go for a graceful taller bonsai, representing a forest grown tree, rather than squat, short and a ''field grown'' tree. It would be okay to cut it short, that will work. Or you can let it grow a while, and see where buds pop. You might get a nice in a good spot to be the next trunk segment. I would go for a tall informal broom.

Personally I'd be tempted to go for a taller, informal broom style. You already have a squat monster style in your ''stumpy lump', so to stretch your skills and learn more, each tree should be somewhat distinctly different in style.

DO NOT PANIC, the hornbeam may not bud out until late June. I would not give up even if July begins without buds. They can take a while to activate dormant buds. Just give it time.

Tall fat Siberian elm, I like it. I would just let it grow a couple years, then decide what to do.

Remember - Siberian elm - needs full sun, best sunrise to sunset. They drop branches when part or all the tree gets too much shade.

Slippery elm - if ''pure blood'' are a forest edge elm. They will take full sun, sunrise to sunset, no problem, but if they get some shade they will keep their branches. If they are a hybrid with Siberian elm, they might need more sun than less sun.

Hornbeam - definitely forest edge to forest understory. Note where you got it, zero east sun, limited sun exposure from the south, only the late afternoon sun was direct and unfiltered. In the back yard and as bonsai in general, morning sun is cooler, probably better, then dappled shade the rest of the day would be best. They will tolerate a fair amount of sun if weather is cool. I would watch out for 85 F plus heat, move it to shade for those periods. The farm had zero days of 90 F or above heat for 2018. Given the wide range of the hornbeam natural distribution, worrying about heat might be a red herring. But just thought I'd mention it. Hot dry direct sun is potentially a problem, especially while the root system is compromised. So far this year, not a problem at all.

 

[Traken]

@Leo in N E Illinois, as always, thank you so much for the wealth of info.

I think the plan for all of them is to just feed, water, and otherwise leave all 4 alone for a while, just to see what they do. Surprisingly, the hornbeam appears to be making buds already. There are little red bits just starting to poke through the bark in several places. Same on the smaller elm as well, it’s pushing buds out now, also.

Good idea on getting some deadwood to practice carving. I hadn’t thought about that at all. And yeah, when the stump gets repotted in a couple years, I’ll see about angling it. I’d put it in flat like that partially out of haste, but also since there was so little rooting tissue on it, I wanted to make sure a bunch was under the pumice, especially given the dead wood above it. It was probably unnecessary given how much it’s growing now. I need to get some new pics, but it’s practically exploding.

Thank you for the sun info. They’re all in a position to get sun relatively most of the day, but I’ll move then elms out a little more, and pull the hornbeam back a bit. Definitely don’t want to cook it, but yeah, this year a little warming up might be nice, considering how cold it’s been.

 

[Ali Raza]

Upload when bud starts to cover the baldness.

 

[Traken]

Just chucking an update out, since I finally managed to snag a couple photos of 3 of the 4 trees. I still need to grab some of the hornbeam, but everything is growing nicely. Here are a couple shots of each of the elms.







Apparently, the elms have been attracting some Japanese beetles, though. I removed and smashed all I could find and doused the trees with neem spray. It's a shame they are so destructive. They're pretty bastages.

 

[Traken]

And here are two crappy photos of the hornbeam.



and now that I'm looking, I wish I'd taken photos of more angles. Ugh.... oh well. Just happy to have everything alive and growing.