European Beech Tricolor...Broken in half

[takeme4granite]

Hey guys,
I recently went to pick up an order from home depot and saw this beech broken in half. I inquired and they gave it to me for free. A few questions. Should I saw it a few inches lower so it is a clean wound? Should I apply cut paste? it looks like the trunk is thicker where it was broken. Is this due to swelling? Will it happen again if I saw it?

It also has weird nebari. One really thick root at a right angle with the trunk and another thick root going straight down (second picture). I only saw a few more very thin roots. I was thinking of trying to place a rock in the arch between the 2 thick roots to make it look like the tree had to grow over it. Does that sound like a good idea?

Thanks!!

 

[Forsoothe!]

That's broken off at the graft. You got an ordinary Beech for free instead, which is just fine because they are all nice. Who knows if it will live or even if it was dead before it broke off. Cut it off cleanly wherever, and hope for the best. At the very least, you have a chance to repay mother nature for all the damage you've done in the past!

 

[Potawatomi13]

NO saw. NO rock. Let grow at least one year. Repot in grow container OK but suggest only minor root disturbance after major loss of top. Possible "may" sprout from small grafted part if not cut off.

 

[penumbra]

I think you might have been given a dead plant. Have you scratched anywhere for green?

 

[sorce]

European Beech 1.5color.

Sorce

 

[takeme4granite]

NO saw. NO rock. Let grow at least one year. Repot in grow container OK but suggest only minor root disturbance after major loss of top. Possible "may" sprout from small grafted part if not cut off.

Yikes! I already cut off the top inch or 2...

 

[takeme4granite]

I think you might have been given a dead plant. Have you scratched anywhere for green?

Yep, it is still green... why do you think its dead?
Do you guys think I should cover with cut paste? Or will that inhibit badbudding?
How long before I should hopefully see some backbuds?

 

[0soyoung]

In this context, cut paste isn't going to do much. The exposed ring of cambium will desiccate near the cut until it can form a new epiderm. Cut paste needs to be applied immediately after the cut is made. Putting it on a day later won't do much, if anything. A layer of visqueen, saran tied over the end for a week or two will do in lieu of paste. Any glue, caulk, putty that isn't water soluable will work as well. But, again, it really won't matter in this circumstance.

That mud it is in (typical of ball and burlap) will be a problem soon. I suggest you wash it away until you've got bare roots, then put it in a pot of fresh substrate/soil/bark - what ever you have that isn't the same sticky mess. IMHO, it would be best if you do this before you see buds on the stem which likely won't be happening for at least a couple of weeks.

 

[BobbyLane]

with a severe chop like this, no visible nodes on the trunk. could easily take up to two months to produce buds. as its a beech i think it will be a goner. had it been an elm or hawthorn then you could of expected to get new buds at the chop site.

 

[takeme4granite]

with a severe chop like this, no visible nodes on the trunk. could easily take up to two months to produce buds. as its a beech i think it will be a goner. had it been an elm or hawthorn then you could of expected to get new buds at the chop site.

Hm okay. Do people not usually trunk chop beeches then?

 

[BobbyLane]

European Copper Beech

Fagus sylvatica purpurea Hi folks, this is a tree i acquired in jan from a bare root nursery, its only early days, but its already been through a root reduction, to get it into a training pot and also a little wire here and there....its responded well and im quite happy and confident its going...

www.bonsainut.com

European Beech material

ive killed nearly every Beech ive worked on.ive repotted them in spring and left decent roots on and theyve still not survived. i repotted one in jan and its still alive, but been in a grow bed for nearly two years now, that one is a keeper all my others have perished! anyway i was out at one of...

www.bonsainut.com

ive trunk chopped lots of beeches, but only if i was chopping back to dormant nodes or branches lower on the trunk. the ones i chopped back to no growth or dormant nodes usually perished. check out the beech article on bonsai4me.

 

[TN_Jim]

Interesting situation.
Ball and burlap soil is typically field soil, not great but at least yours looks better than others, still not great because it’s so consistently wet...is there sand in there?? -it’s hard to tell from photo..if so, it could have been somewhat bare rooted even a year ago...or does it just look like un-ammended dirt?

If you’re going to keep it as is (I would) and hope for some backbudding, you will have to make sure you don’t let it stay saturated.

I’ve bare rooted beech, but after losing one (American beech) collected last year I really wanted to make it, I will never wash ones roots clean again -i think they may have some microbial associations with sensitive roots to boot. This may be the first time I’ve ever disagreed with @Osoyoung, but I would be very reluctant to repot at all this year.

....I’ll likely be getting a lot more rain than you as well...

here’s a quasi-successful Hail Mary with no previous bud in sight..some hope on a free tree..?

 

[BobbyLane]

how we doin

 

[Potawatomi13]

Seconded.

 

[leatherback]

Seconded.

Thirded?