European Hawthorn Callousing

AndyJ

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Hey folks.

Has anyone got any experience of European Hawthorns (Crataegus Monogyna) and their ability to callous wounds? I think I read somewhere that hawthorn’s didn’t do this very well?

I‘ve got a European Hawthorn that I’ve had growing in my grow bed for a few years. About three years ago I cut it back to create a new direction and to begin a change in taper. It grew well and last year I cut it back again for another directional change and more increased taper. All is looking ok, except there was no sign of any callousing on either of the cut points.

This spring, I watched the work Peter Warren did on a Japanese Maple in a Bonsai Mirai video and thought I’d try it on my hawthorn to see if it would work. So I worked the first cut point - cutout the wood inside the hole, packed it with epoxy, trimmed round the wound to expose fresh cambium, sealed the edge with sealing putty and finally covered the whole lot with sticky aluminium. I wait to see how it does.

Be interested to hear of anyone’s experience.

Andy
 

TomB

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In my experience, it’s very very very slow on trunks, no matter what you try to do to stimulate it. On actively growing branches though, knobs of callus form very quickly, so you need to be careful with pruning. Your results will be interesting.
 

AndyJ

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Mmmmm sounds like a very slow job then @TomB ! Did you do anything in particular to speed up the callousing on the branches?
 

BobbyLane

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Hawthorn in our landscape is a rugged tree, often gnarled, twisted and craggy. its never struck me to use any type of sealants at all on these trees. ive rarely, if ever seen anyone in the uk using paste on yamadori/collected hawthorn.
 

AndyJ

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I probably wouldn’t bother on a yamadori either @BobbyLane but I’m working on a nursery tree and I cut it low when I got it to introduce some movement - trunk was too thick to bend it with wire. I was hoping that the wound would repair and give me a smooth transition low down; if it doesn’t work I’ll have to carve it
 

BobbyLane

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this is a nursery hawthorn, has a few cuts from being reduced but overtime will just blend in
20200522_115706.jpg
20200524_110636.jpg
 

AndyJ

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Not great pictures, but here it is this morning. As you can see no barking up yet and I’m planning on just letting it grow for a few years. I worked on it’s roots this spring and put it in a grow box - will be going back in the ground next year.

5784AC05-1FDA-436C-92A4-FB69FF38C1D6.jpeg29B785C7-1777-49B6-988F-F0573E848D5D.jpegABE79F44-3557-4E07-8E7E-19740A4C6565.jpeg
 

BobbyLane

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i have a root cutting from the taller tree doing well in the ground.

your grow box looks way oversized.
if you want to thicken the trunk i would just leave it in the ground to grow wild. messing around with foil n paste is a waste of time.
 

TomB

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Mmmmm sounds like a very slow job then @TomB ! Did you do anything in particular to speed up the callousing on the branches?
Kiyonal cut paste. I’m talking about cuts like the healed ones in the picture where branches were removed to prevent knuckles etc.
 

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AndyJ

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i have a root cutting from the taller tree doing well in the ground.

your grow box looks way oversized.
if you want to thicken the trunk i would just leave it in the ground to grow wild. messing around with foil n paste is a waste of time.

The intention this spring, was to lift it, trim the roots and replant it back in the ground but when I lifted it, it hardly had any fine feeder roots - those that it did have were right at the end of thicker roots. Is that what they call lollipop or pom-pom roots? i spread out what was there and planted it in the box in a substrate that should (hopefully) build some finer roots closer to the trunk. It looks like its an oversized pot, but there‘s a board under there so it’s actually planted relatively shallow. If it’s produced more roots next spring, it’ll go back in the ground for a few more years. By then, that big wound in the front might have reduced a bit.

Do you mean messing around with foil and paste is a waste of time period? Or just on hawthorns?

Thanks again

Andy
 

BobbyLane

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i mean on this tree in particular, there is barely any structure to it. the branches look leggy. you just said yourself its weak and doesnt have much roots. weak trees dont produce callus willingly, strong trees with good root systems do. therefore messing around with foil and paste for this tree is a waste of time.

on top of that, as has been said hawthorns dont callus well in general so with everything put together, the healing experiment is doomed to fail.
the practice was shown on a healthy, well established Japanese maple, they callus well. maybe try the experiment on a healthy maple a beech or a hornbeam and better still an elm to get a proper idea.

yes i would stick it in the ground and forget about it.

personally when i put trees in the ground i dont mess around with the roots a year or two down. i know many recommend arranging the roots every so often. i dont bother. i tend to pick trees that already had a decent nebari before planting. i then put them on a tile/slate or whatever and just let them grow. thats what has been done with these hawthorns and all my other trees in the beds.

only time ive adjusted roots is if i pulled up a tree then decided afterwards that it wasnt good enough or ready to be trained as bonsai, in those cases i might have worked the roots and planted back in the ground
 
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Woocash

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People regularly talk about this online. I’ve never seen any evidence of it actually working.
That Sir, sounds like a gauntlet being thrown down! It probably would have to be very accurate with regards to cambium left intact. I did also wonder if it was possible to remove some young bark/cambium from a discarded stem to use as a skin graft as such. Maybe even from a different species with similar but easier to peel bark or done when the sap is flowing the most.
 

TomB

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That Sir, sounds like a gauntlet being thrown down! It probably would have to be very accurate with regards to cambium left intact. I did also wonder if it was possible to remove some young bark/cambium from a discarded stem to use as a skin graft as such. Maybe even from a different species with similar but easier to peel bark or done when the sap is flowing the most.

Yes, that’s the kind of thing they usually say. If you do try it, make sure you post about the results.
 
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