American Hornbeam #2 Progression, Caleb C.

[Caleb Campbell]

Here is another Carpinus Caroliniana I collected in December 2020. It has a rather straight trunk, but has a massive (comparitively) opposing root flare. Will be a nice, straight, shohin+ haha. Wish I got pictures of the roots when I potted it.

Upon Collection:


Leafed out in February and here it is mid-April:

 

[Caleb Campbell]

By July it had very good, healthy growth. While my elms were being swarmed by sapsuckers, fungus, and deer, my hornbeams didn't skip a beat.



Decided to take a pretty later air layer before chopping to my desired leader halfway down the trunk. It was a really tricky position but I managed to pull it off with a cream cheese container I dig out of the bottom of our garbage.




Air layer was ready by November. Later than I'd like but I didn't wanna wait any longer to chop, and the top of this tree would just be chopped off and trashed otherwise. Plan on making it a very short shohin tree at some point.




And finally, the main tree with its leader and all:


Keeping the nebari buried so it can improve, and hopefully become more radial, so you'll have to stay tuned to see it in the future

 

[Scrogdor]

Thanks for your posts, I love all the progression pictures of your trees!

 

[LindaPat]

I have several of these, collected trees from north of Albany NY, and many have long trunks. I’m happy to see they can be layered. I’ll try one this summer.