I decided to start working on one of the hedgerow beech trees that i bought 2 years ago - as the beech buds were all swelling up nicely. There were bought bare root - so i am certain that the roots can be taken back a long way. This image is after 2 years in some nice soil - living out on the lawn with regular water and fertiliser. I was a little surprised at the generous amount of root that had developed. It was pot bound after 2 years.
This one is the least interesting of the trunks so i decided to use it first as a learning experience for working with beech trees. From most angles its about 2" thick somewhat above the ground level.
I removed all the long circling roots and blasted out most of the old soil with water. There were a few problematic thick roots which i cut back a little. That root to the left was just too far up to be kept and was later removed.
The soil mix used to grow this was quite good and i think i will use something close to it again in the future. Lots of coarse sand and horticultural grit - with plenty of perlite. The 3 beech trees grew on very well in this and created fantastic root systems full of fine feeder roots - hence the good growth rate of the trunks.
I created a soil mix based a bit on the work from the last few years. Pure biosorb was a bit hard to grow in. It required a lot of fertiliser and water. It is still primarily biosorb - but i have added finely graded fuji grit and akadama. There is also a heavy helping of pine bark in there. The soil mix is generously inoculated with rootgrow. I will begin fertilizing very soon with fish emulsion ( gave it a good drenching today ).
This beech will be kept under glass until it is in rude health.
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