the really big hornbeam saga, part 1

This is a European hornbeam, Carpinus betulus. It is about 50 yers old and was collected in Germany around 1996. I acquired it and planted it into my growing field. In the beginning it was jsut a promising stump. That means it had no branches. I cut it back about three times every year and it got much better over the years.

Here is the tree right after harvest in spring of 2004. This looks quite promising. But the tree is VERY big, 95 cm high, diameter of trunk at the base around 30 cm.