Beech follow up

The repotted beech is doing very well. It doesn’t seem to have even noticed being repotted. There is one very peculiar thing though - the beechs that were left outdoors in their pots to grow on have lovely red foliage - but the one that was repotted and kept under glass to recover has reverted to green leaves.

Here is the trunk now with leaves on it. Sorry about the poor lighting - London is under leaden skies.

Interestingly the beech seems to be budding out on trunk again below the main cut - so with a little carving and patience it wont look like an ugly trunk chop job.

First Copper Beech

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.

Oak progress

This is my first Oak - discovered coming up amongst the tomato plants in the vegetable patch about 6 years ago - the work of a forgetful squirrel.

The next 4 Oaks are growing in containers out back - also from acorns. Nice little trunks on them already. I think i shall try for larger containers for them this year.

I think the warm March got it going a little early and a few late frosts really hurt it. I became concerned and brought it in under glass to help it out a little as we have had a few -4 ( friday 4 april  according to a local weather station ) nights lately. Under the more comfortable circumstance it has begun growing energetically.

I have done some light wiring - but they new shoots are very delicate and the leaves are brittle and will crack and break easily. I find the Oak is a bit easier to wire when its hardened off a little.

I have some black slime growing on the soil surface ( i call it pot snot ) so i will remove some of the top layer. There is also a lot of moss and it makes it hard to water.

This oak is rather pot bound now. The roots and soil are quite rot free so they will have to soldier on for another year. The soil mix is finely graded Akadama and fuji grit - and the Oak has loved it. The Oak is subjectively easier to grow than pines and is more tolerant of watering and fertilizer.


Here is the little Oak today. Once mother nature gives the signal it is one of the fastest growing trees i have ever seen.

There are probably 10 times as many growth points this year. I am hoping that this first flush of leaves will be smaller than last years.

A lot of wire is going to be used to tame this one.