Japanese Hornbeam yellowing + budding

[takira]

Apologies if this is an utterly daft question - new to the hobby and desperate not to screw up the basics.

I have a Japanese Hornbeam seedling that was acquired in mid-July and has been thriving since, but in the past few weeks has been having seemingly random yellowing and dropping of leaves. I get that it's deciduous, but it also seems to be pushing buds at the same time. Is this just setting buds for the spring? I haven't seen any obvious external parasites, the leaves that are remaining green seem healthy, and I suspect that I'm just being an idiot about a natural process, but wanted to be sure that I'm not missing something important before it goes dormant for the fall. For reference, I'm in southeast Michigan and the weather here has been exceedingly variable of late - highs were in the low eighties day before yesterday and are projected to be in the mid-fifties for most of next week.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Welcome Aboad BonsaiNut.

You certainly aren’t daft and it’s a good question.

Looks like it’s time to drop leaves!

There are two signals plants use to signal time to draw in the resources from the leaves into the vascular regions and absciss or in the spring to break buds. These are daylight length and temperature.

Daylight length in the fall tends to be the stronger signal for dormancy.

Not sure about the breaking buds… wondering if you fertilized recently?

cheers
DSD sends

 

[takira]

Thanks for the input!

The days are definitely shortening around here lately, and it finally got cold yesterday and today - I wonder if the budding is just from the mixed signals of shortening days and highs in the low eighties we've had the past week or so. I haven't applied any fertilizer - all I've done since it arrived is water it, and apply one crude bit of wire, only because the two main branches were crossing over one another and rubbing.

Speaking of, is this a situation where I should remove the wire before it gets too much colder? I know I've read about oaks not wanting to be wired over winter because the cold wire affects them; not sure if that applies to all deciduous trees or if oaks are especially sensitive.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Gosh, it depends on the location and where the tree is stored.

Doubt a Hornbeam would flinch with a bit of wire over winter in our area….

In any event please double click your icon atop the page then again on account details. Scroll done and enter your approximate location and USDA Cold Hardiness Planting Zone. This way we can better answer your questions.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[roberthu]

I would not remove the wire. It will cause more harm than good if you manipulate the tree again.
Did you prune after you got the tree? If not, then I will just leave it along, assuming you are keeping the tree outside.

 

[takira]

I didn't do any pruning - I hadn't honestly intended to do any wiring right after I got it, but since the two main branches were crossed over and rubbing against one another, I thought wiring them apart would prevent that issue getting any worse as it grew.

Fwiw, I'm in southeast Michigan, USDA zone 6a. Winters have been milder the past few years but we'll still reliably get down to single digits for a few (hopefully brief!) periods. I was planning on moving the outdoor bonsai to an unheated attached garage with a large window to protect them from the coldest temperatures once it gets down to the low twenties at night - except the cork bark oak seedlings, which I understand are less cold-tolerant, so I was planning to move them to the basement by the egress window for light as soon as lows drop below freezing.

I'm really looking forward to being able to focus on styling and whatnot - I feel like this whole first year has mostly been "how do I not kill these things?!".