Future plans for collected tree.

[cheap_walmart_art]

So here is my first collected tree, dug up back in spring 2017. I though it was an American hornbeam when I collected it, but further study indicated it may be a hophornbeam. I've not touched it and just allowed it to recover, as I put it in way too small a pot on collection. Here it is last spring after first leaf. Looked like this most of last year.


If I had it to do over I probably would not have collected this one as the trunk doesn't strike me as very interesting. However, it's my first try at digging one up so I'd like to continue developing it for the sake if that fact alone. Here it is as of this morning:


Seems happy with a lot of good new growth. I plan on letting us grow untouched this year as well, except to remove growth to get light to those lower buds if needed. My original plan was to chop it again next spring below the split and grow a new leader. However, looks to me like that would just leave a squat and uninteresting trunk.


The more I think about it, the more I think I may just leave the trunk as is and let it develop into a larger bonsai resembling the natural growth of all the rest of these trees on the farm I collected it from. What do you all think?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Always start with the nebari and the base of the trunk, and go from there. The nebari is the most important part of the tree, and the hardest to develop. If the nebari is good, I would next look to the trunk and decide my design line and taper, which in turn would dictate whether more dramatic trunk work would be needed. If the nebari is poor, you need to fix the nebari or air-layer the trunk and start over, BEFORE you start worrying about anything else.

Too often people get distracted by the upper branches, or the tree silhouette, instead of focusing on priorities. You can spend years messing around with branches and ramification on a tree with a bad nebari - and you end up air-layering the tree and having to remove all the branches because they no longer work with the new trunk height.

Show us photos of the nebari and the bottom 4" of the trunk.

 

[rockm]

Always start with the nebari and the base of the trunk, and go from there. The nebari is the most important part of the tree, and the hardest to develop. If the nebari is good, I would next look to the trunk and decide my design line and taper, which in turn would dictate whether more dramatic trunk work would be needed. If the nebari is poor, you need to fix the nebari or air-layer the trunk and start over, BEFORE you start worrying about anything else.

Too often people get distracted by the upper branches, or the tree silhouette, instead of focusing on priorities. You can spend years messing around with branches and ramification on a tree with a bad nebari - and you end up air-layering the tree and having to remove all the branches because they no longer work with the new trunk height.

Show us photos of the nebari and the bottom 4" of the trunk.

Exactly. When you collect a tree from the wild, you're collecting the bottom third, and most importantly, its root spread at the surface. Beyond the upper third, any branching, etc. is going to be removed repeatedly over the years as you develop the tree.

That "squat uninteresting trunk" is basically the skeleton of any future bonsai. BTW, there is some pretty nice interest in the lower third of this from the photos you have posted. those two branches should come off and the trunk reduced considerably in the coming couple of years.

 

[Potawatomi13]

The more I think about it, the more I think I may just leave the trunk as is and let it develop into a larger bonsai resembling the natural growth of all the rest of these trees on the farm I collected it from. What do you all think?

Yup! Enough foliage trunk not so bad after all. Angle chosen for front matters also.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

Here are what pics I could get of the roots as it stands.