european beech

jason08

I bought this european beech a year or more ago at the nursery, it came in a one gallon pot which i've grown it in up till now. Basically all i have done to this point is cut the tap root and any other ones growing downward, and trimmed the rest back to a decent point... then i chopped the trunk near the top and made a new leader, and then lightly trimmed the branches etc.... so here it is now... i repotted it in this new pot i got today, and gave it some bonsai soil which has a mixture of perlite, pumice, peat, pine bark, and sand. I noticed that the roots were really growing nicely, very shallow and fine.. and the new foliage is growing more and more each day, so its exciting to know that its doing really well
so let me know what you think,

-jason

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soonami

I love beech in nature, behind my parent's house, there is a grove of trees that look at least 500 years old, but for bonsai they are very frustrating, they produce one spurt of growth in the spring and that's it for the next twelve months. Even though I have access to a lot of great beech, I'm starting to realize that beech bonsai will take a long time to fully develop.

That said I like the lines of your tree very much, I hope you do too, but it's going to look like that for a long time. That beech won't thicken up hardly any and it will take years to ramify. Basically, if you are happy with the present image, great, because don't expect much to happen.

andrew lenden

You will get a second flush of growth on a healthy european beech although its not as vigourous as the first in which most of the extension growth takes place. regards Andrew

rockm

Andrew is right. AMERICAN beech (fagus grandiflora) has a single flush of spring growth. European beech (fagus sylvatica) can produce more and is faster to develop ramification and in general development.

soonami

From my understanding, I thought that only certain cultivars of European beech could produce that secondary budding, but that's why I'm still learning

As for european beech growing faster, I hope it does, because tortoises grow faster than american beech

rockm

"From my understanding, I thought that only certain cultivars of European beech could produce that secondary budding, but that's why I'm still learning"

That may, or may not, be true. I don't believe it is. In any case, any cultivar of European beech is more responsive than American Beech as bonsai. I would, however, NEVER discount American Beech as a bonsai subject. It is a great tree to work with. It takes alot longer to work into bonsai, but hardly as slow as you seem to think. It is very vigorous once established in a container. It is also extremely winter hardy if it's native to your region. It can take shallow containers too.

It isn't a beginner's tree, as it requires some specialized care, but it's also not THAT difficult. You just have to double up the development time expectations for this species.

jason08

Thankyou all for your responses I managed to find this page with info on the species of beech, and how suitable they are for bonsai etc, maybe it can help someone else thats interested in these particular trees. http://bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Fagus.html
european beech seems to be the more common species... ive noticed that they are mostly used for forest bonsai, thats something that i considered at first when purchasing it, but then i later found pictures on the internet of beautiful upright beech bonsai, personally i think it is well worth the wait for a thick trunk, and nice branch structure... so i think i will use this tree for a long term bonsai, maybe it should be planted in the ground for several years, what do you think? Ive read that it is the easiest way to get a thicker trunk on tree's like this...

-jason

soonami

I've been surrounded by beech my whole life, but only have limited experience with them as bonsai from the few taht I've collected and had survive. But a beautiful beech is well worth the wait imo.

As with most trees, the fastest way for it to gain girth is to plant it in the ground or a large grow box. You just have to be careful when growing them out to watch out for where you want to trunk chop because these guys scar easily and don't really heal over.

Here's another link:
http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/beech.html