Collecting Hackberry
- Thread starter August44
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BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
Its an under utilised species, having owned one id treat it like any other deciduous species. dig up in spring as the buds swell.
Doogliebop
Mame
I collect sugar hackberry (Celtis laevigata) all year in south Louisiana with a survival rate of about 90-95%.
19Mateo83
Masterpiece
Does anyone know how these respond to root pruning at collection? I have a couple on my list for this year, I wanna make sure I don’t kill them collecting them. Also, does anyone know how they take to ground or air layering?
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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They should respond well, very much like the elms. In many ways, including vigor, hackberry resemble elms. I had one for a decade, about 2 decades ago. Don't have one now.
C. laevagata is my favorite, as it can have more coarse, textured bark.
19Mateo83
Masterpiece
The three types of trees in my back yard are winged elm, sweet gum and hack berry. I wish you could get them to develop the buttressing in a bonsai pot like this one in my yard has.
Hack Yeah!
Omono
Oh man, I bet that one shits all over your house every year.The three types of trees in my back yard are winged elm, sweet gum and hack berry. I wish you could get them to develop the buttressing in a bonsai pot like this one in my yard has.
View attachment 473397
. They layer easily..
Doogliebop
Mame
Yes Leo is correct, much like elms. They were classified in the elm family once upon a time. The difference being in the leaf veining and bark. Very fun native species. Probably of one with most potential.
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
yeh as Leo said, theyre just like elm or even zelkova, they can produce ultra fine and dense twigging much like zelkova, so the roots are not much different, there are some stunning specimens out of Taiwan.The three types of trees in my back yard are winged elm, sweet gum and hack berry. I wish you could get them to develop the buttressing in a bonsai pot like this one in my yard has.
View attachment 473397
Loads more like this on google
19Mateo83
Masterpiece
Ha ha we had one over our deck at one time. I got tired of cleaning off the black shit so it had to go. This one’s ok where it’s at. It’s good to know they layer quite easily. I’ve noticed that certain ones develop ultra fine twinging naturally, more so than others. Gonna have to set a ton of layers on them this spring.Oh man, I bet that one shits all over your house every year.
19Mateo83
Masterpiece
I wonder if they can be propagated from root cuttings as well, like elms. I know they will send up suckers off their roots.
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
man you have a mature tree in your yard, get to work n let us know how you get on
GGB
Masterpiece
To date i have dug up 2, the roots ran for miles without feeders but it didn't matter, they survived. I feel like they tend to grow in places that are harder to collect from, near me anyway...
eugenev2
Shohin
I know from my limited experience with hackberry (the local common variety at least) is that there are some differences between them and my elm, celtis sinensis and celtis africana seem to require less watering than my elm. And they go into heat dormancy when temperatures get too hot above 30C (90F), but respond well to cuttings/airlayering/root pruning. Never tried root cuttings, might give that a shot at some point
A local guys progression blog of some of his hackberries
Field growing bonsai trees
Field growing is one of the techniques by which you can rapidly attain thick, tapering trunks with which to develop quality bonsai trees. We cover the basics.
www.bonsaitree.co.za
Field growing Hackberry Part 2
In this blog post on field growing Hackberry for bonsai we continue the development of two trees, transferring them to wooden growing containers.
www.bonsaitree.co.za
Layering of a Hackberry, Part 1
In this blog post we ground layer a Hackberry which is destined to become a broom style in order to improve the surface roots
www.bonsaitree.co.za
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Here are two recently collected Hackberry. I'm pretty excited about the smaller on becoming a very nice tree, but the 4'+ monster with no lower branching I'm not sure what to do with. Maybe Air layer a foot or so below the top after it gets going again. The trunk on the smaller on is 3"+ and the bigger one 4"+-. Input appreciated. Thanks
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19Mateo83
Masterpiece
Nice finds!
19Mateo83
Masterpiece
I found this one last week beside a game trail. Apparently deer like to nibble on their leaves… it does make for an interesting little tree though.
Very nice with great branching! Lucky u. Were you able to get good roots?
19Mateo83
Masterpiece
They were decent, a few bigger ones and some fines. It had almost no tap root so that’s a plus. Unfortunately there’s not much taper to it, I will probably air layer off the tops next year if it survives.
