Revolutionary Hawthorn Collection Technique
- Thread starter brewmeister83
- Start date
This isn't what I read originally, but may be some insight to tony's use of sphagnum. From Harry Harrington's article on sphagnum's use in bonsai:
"Less well known is that Sphagnum moss contains a high zinc content in the form of a naturally occurring antibiotic called Tropolene. The anaerobic bacteria that cause decay in wood are nullified by the antiseptic properties of Sphagnum. Hence, pure Sphagnum (without the addition of any other organic material) is an ideal medium for re-invigorating weak trees, recently collected trees and trees with root-rot."
"Less well known is that Sphagnum moss contains a high zinc content in the form of a naturally occurring antibiotic called Tropolene. The anaerobic bacteria that cause decay in wood are nullified by the antiseptic properties of Sphagnum. Hence, pure Sphagnum (without the addition of any other organic material) is an ideal medium for re-invigorating weak trees, recently collected trees and trees with root-rot."
Zach Smith
Omono
I don't understand this topic. I've been collecting hawthorns for 25 years, and my survival rate is over 90%. I usually don't get a lot of feeder roots, but that doesn't affect anything. Here's what you need to know:
1. Hawthorn wood is tough, so please get yourself a cordless reciprocating saw unless you just want the exercise. If the tree is growing out of a rock, can't help you with that. Get a pick, remove all the rock and then saw the roots (close to the trunk). Most seem to have a tap root, so get the 12" pruning blade to get under it.
2. Clean off all native soil, dress (recut) all the roots when you get home (don't be shy, cut them short enough to fit in a bonsai pot) and dust the cuts ends with rooting hormone and pot in your local soil mix. Water thoroughly.
3. Seal all cuts and chops over 1/4".
4. Wait till spring for budburst, wire in late spring to early summer, and you will be rewarded.
5. If you don't get the budding you want along the trunk, all is not lost. You can do a secondary trunk chop. PM me for specifics on your tree.
Hawthorns either root great or not a lot. The tree doesn't seem to mind either way. Just treat accordingly when repotting time comes.
Zach
1. Hawthorn wood is tough, so please get yourself a cordless reciprocating saw unless you just want the exercise. If the tree is growing out of a rock, can't help you with that. Get a pick, remove all the rock and then saw the roots (close to the trunk). Most seem to have a tap root, so get the 12" pruning blade to get under it.
2. Clean off all native soil, dress (recut) all the roots when you get home (don't be shy, cut them short enough to fit in a bonsai pot) and dust the cuts ends with rooting hormone and pot in your local soil mix. Water thoroughly.
3. Seal all cuts and chops over 1/4".
4. Wait till spring for budburst, wire in late spring to early summer, and you will be rewarded.
5. If you don't get the budding you want along the trunk, all is not lost. You can do a secondary trunk chop. PM me for specifics on your tree.
Hawthorns either root great or not a lot. The tree doesn't seem to mind either way. Just treat accordingly when repotting time comes.
Zach
Lee Brindley
Yamadori
I too have no issues with survival rates in hawthorn but I think that Tony's methods could well be very useful for Prunus which many of us in the UK have trouble with. I think I have got a pretty good idea what method Tony is using but will look forward to the official publication to see if I have missed anything. What I do know is that Tony uses rootgrow Mycorrhizal fungi http://rootgrow.co.uk/ and also makes use of a heated bed.
Zach Smith
Omono
Makes sense. We have a native prunus here, serotina, which resists collecting mightily. I don't know if it's just this species or I never figured it out.
Zach
Lee Brindley
Yamadori
This may be of some interest. http://yamadoriartuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/prunus-spinosa-blackthorn-survival-part.html I think that with what I have written in my blog and what you folks have already come up with in this thread, you should be able to pretty much piece it together. Hopefully Tony will publish the whole step-by-step technique soon.
Huh... So it sounds like there's a step involving putting the newly cellected tree in a black garbage bag for a while? It didn't really go into detail but look like that was what it was hinting at... apparently to maintain humidity and keep it dark? That's... interesting.
Seems like you'd want to be real careful about fungus/mold growing in a condition like that. I would think the sphagnum could help with that though.
So I was really just guessing about what you were getting at in my last post... but these videos I discovered, the guy shows putting a variety of collected material into, first a black bag, then once leaves start popping he moves them into a clear garbage bag. So if this is anything along the lines of what you were talking about, wink once for yes, wink twice for no.
Here are the vids:
First vid: the very end of the vid is what you need to see, when he puts the wisteria into a black bag.
Second vid: In which he switches a tree from a black bag to a clear bag after leaves are popping.
Third vid: In which he makes holes in the bag later on.
It seems this technique is really all about preserving humidity, it's basically a mini greenhouse for the tree to live in. Makes sense. It seems to me one of the biggest reasons collected trees fail is because their wood dries out too much. Not sure wha the black accomplishes, and don't feel like looking up scientific botanical articles on the effect of light deprevation on bud formation... but just connecting the dots maybe lack of light stimulates the tree to bush buds more aggressively???
On a further note, I have collected two hawthorn this spring, the weekend of easter. One is already pushing leaves out but only on preformed buds. Luckily their was some young wood quite close to the ground. It has not started pushing buds from dormant buds yet, higher up the trunk. But i am hoping it will. I will post pics for this guys on another thread.
The other has not pushed anything yet, it is an old a weathered stump. I put both of them into bags last night to see if this will help. I will be watching the one with the buds starting to open like a hawk to make sure I am not doing damage to those leaves just beginning to open.
Here are the vids:
First vid: the very end of the vid is what you need to see, when he puts the wisteria into a black bag.
Second vid: In which he switches a tree from a black bag to a clear bag after leaves are popping.
Third vid: In which he makes holes in the bag later on.
It seems this technique is really all about preserving humidity, it's basically a mini greenhouse for the tree to live in. Makes sense. It seems to me one of the biggest reasons collected trees fail is because their wood dries out too much. Not sure wha the black accomplishes, and don't feel like looking up scientific botanical articles on the effect of light deprevation on bud formation... but just connecting the dots maybe lack of light stimulates the tree to bush buds more aggressively???
On a further note, I have collected two hawthorn this spring, the weekend of easter. One is already pushing leaves out but only on preformed buds. Luckily their was some young wood quite close to the ground. It has not started pushing buds from dormant buds yet, higher up the trunk. But i am hoping it will. I will post pics for this guys on another thread.
The other has not pushed anything yet, it is an old a weathered stump. I put both of them into bags last night to see if this will help. I will be watching the one with the buds starting to open like a hawk to make sure I am not doing damage to those leaves just beginning to open.
Lee Brindley
Yamadori
Hi Mike. Yes you are right.
Now you just need to perfect the soil mix, temperature, humidity, timespan in each bag and most importantly I think for Prunus - the optimum collection time. I am still working on perfecting the technique myself, but I would say that with Crataegus at least, the margin for error is quite large.OK... so I am completely sold on this already... Just after 3 days in a black bag, the hawthorn that I didn't think would wake up is forming visible buds all the way up the trunk. They are very very small, almost didn't see them when I checked on it this afternoon.
It's been three full weeks since i collected it, and it was showing no signs of waking up sitting outside in the shade. Then after a few days in the bag, it definitely kicked it's ass into gear. Like WOW.
I placed it in my "sun porch" too. The porch gets no direct sunlight through the windows, but with the windows closed it get's pretty balmy. And i have a few bald cypress just sitting in a tub of water out there too, so the whole room is very humid too. Kind of a greenhouse environment at the moment. I put my buckthorn in a bag three days ago too, and that's showing buds high up the trunk as well. I'm christening my sun porch as the tree hospital now. The other hawthorn that had a couple buds opening is also showing some tiny buds further up the trunk on the older wood too. Heat and humidity seem to be the two biggest things helping these trees come to life, all in all very cool. I'd already recommend others do this, even if you collected the tree a few weeks ago.
Oh yea, another thing i was doing was opening the bags and misting the trunks each day.
It's been three full weeks since i collected it, and it was showing no signs of waking up sitting outside in the shade. Then after a few days in the bag, it definitely kicked it's ass into gear. Like WOW.
I placed it in my "sun porch" too. The porch gets no direct sunlight through the windows, but with the windows closed it get's pretty balmy. And i have a few bald cypress just sitting in a tub of water out there too, so the whole room is very humid too. Kind of a greenhouse environment at the moment. I put my buckthorn in a bag three days ago too, and that's showing buds high up the trunk as well. I'm christening my sun porch as the tree hospital now. The other hawthorn that had a couple buds opening is also showing some tiny buds further up the trunk on the older wood too. Heat and humidity seem to be the two biggest things helping these trees come to life, all in all very cool. I'd already recommend others do this, even if you collected the tree a few weeks ago.
Oh yea, another thing i was doing was opening the bags and misting the trunks each day.
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