Collecting a Hawthorn

[MacSpook]

Very nice. What mix did you go with after?

Thanks, 1-1-1 pumice, horticultural grit and clay pebbles. I also added some mycorrhizal fungi pellets.

 

[MacSpook]

At the moment, my long term plan is to wait until it has fully recovered and maybe sometime in 2023/24 air-layer at one of the yellow lines and chop the trunk back to the red line as suggested by @Brian Van Fleet. I like the shape and movement in the bottom part and I also like the movement in the upper part and I think it has potential as a separate tree so I don't want to make the lower chop now and throw away the top part.



I realise that making good decisions early in development will save time in later years and I'm new to this so will consider any opinions or advice.

 

[MacSpook]

Thought I'd have a go at the root cuttings.



50/50 potting grit and pumice.

 

[MacSpook]

Positive signs at the start of the growing season.






Just need to be patient now and let it grow.

Mac

 

[Shibui]

Just need to be patient now and let it grow.

I've found them to be slow to recover. Some can be worked after a year, others need 2 years or more before sufficient root recovery for more work. Your tree has great potential so please don't rush it.

 

[MacSpook]

The root cuttings are showing signs of life

 

[Apex37]

In part two of this relatively recent podcast I believe Harry says he puts newly collected deciduous trees in straight pumice. I seriously could have missed something but think he said -collect, plastic bag to retain moisture, home, next morning clean field soil and into pumice. This may be a newer approach, dunno.

Makes perfect sense to me with some pine bark in there, to each..

Podcast looks like this:
View attachment 416122

FANTASTIC song choice playing

 

[BobbyLane]

I've identified a wild European hawthorn that I want to collect in the next couple of weeks. Today I spent about 2 hours trimming it down and reducing the growth to a size that I can hopefully bring home without causing too much trauma to it. I will be using a soil mix that Tony Tickle recommends for potting yamadori hawthorn and I will be closely following his care advice including the black bag method. A lot of the info I've read on collecting says get rid of what you don't need. So I'm trying to get a good balance between reduction and keeping enough of he branches for potential foliage growth to support the root system as it recovers.


Here it is before cutting back. It's not a great picture but you can see how moss covered and congested it was.

View attachment 416081




And here it is after cutting back

View attachment 416082



It's about 3 feet at the tallest point. I'm not sure about removing the branch to the right now or wait until it's (hopefully) recovered.

Mac

A lot of inherant beauty for Hawthorn is in the gnarly, twisted branching, sometimes you can find lots of changes of direction and twists as you mentioned you saw. if possible and if its desirable you do want to try to keep some of that.
the deed is done now, but if you look at some of the Hawthorn collected by Will baddely, Tony tickle, Harry harrington etc they dont tame them too much, Hawthorn are generally kept somewhat wild.
Also depends on tastes of course

have a look at some of these I pulled from a couple FB groups. Note how leaving some thick branches gives you a chance to create powerful, tapered sub trunks or branching. again a lot comes down to tastes. Harry also has a few where he did infact take them down to bare trunks for the most part.
Some British collectors tend to leave a bit more on.

 

[Hack Yeah!]

View attachment 448419

The root cuttings are showing signs of life

How's the main tree looking?

 

[MacSpook]

How's the main tree looking?

So far so good. A bit of wiring while the stems are flexible

Mac

 

[MacSpook]

A lot of inherant beauty for Hawthorn is in the gnarly, twisted branching, sometimes you can find lots of changes of direction and twists as you mentioned you saw. if possible and if its desirable you do want to try to keep some of that.
the deed is done now, but if you look at some of the Hawthorn collected by Will baddely, Tony tickle, Harry harrington etc they dont tame them too much, Hawthorn are generally kept somewhat wild.
Also depends on tastes of course

Thanks for feedback. As you say the deed is done. In hindsight, If I was harvesting this tree now I would keep some of the gnarly growth that I removed before I dug it up. For now, I'll let it continue to recover for a year or two before making any big decisions on where to take it as far as styling goes. There are some more similar hawthorns at the location where I got this one but i won't be harvesting any until I'm sure I've got the care right for best chance of survival.

Mac

 

[PonderingSage:]

Nice!
It’s always nice when they pull through.