Hello, I have some rather large Hawthorn shrubs with 2-4 inch trunks that I was thinking of digging up as yamadori bonsai. I was wondering if anyone here has done this before? How much of the top of the tree can I safely cut off? I will try to get some pictures tomorrow if I can. What is the best time of year to dig these up?

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Best time to dig deciduous trees is spring, just before the buds open.
more info you can get here:

Hawthorn can be very temperamental. After digging and potting, allow a few years in the pot before working it again. Learned the hard way that a year recovery is not enough. (Killed one after successful collection, and a year later, repotting and trimming some roots: Never woke up).

Check Tony Tickle & black bag for Yamadori.

leatherback wrote:

Hawthorn can be very temperamental. After digging and potting, allow a few years in the pot before working it again. Learned the hard way that a year recovery is not enough. (Killed one after successful collection, and a year later, repotting and trimming some roots: Never woke up).

Check Tony Tickle & black bag for Yamadori.

I have the opposite feeling/experience: very strong trees that can stand abuse. Mine all came from an old hedge and were pulled out with a tractor, leaving almost no feeder roots, all survived and were potted and worked on within the first year. Sadly enough I was an even bigger noob than I am now back then so I made a lot of mistakes that I have to work with or start adjusting now ( 6 years later)

What kind of soil would you recommend? Currently I have no "bonsai" Soil, but have been mixing small stones, wood chips, leaf litter, and organic potting soil mix.

There is absolutely no need for bonsai soil. Just use any free draining soil/substrate you can buy, or even just regular potting soil.

Regular potting soil and most soil dug up from the ground will compact and make it hard for roots to penetrate, and there will be drainage problems.

The usually recommended mix is 1/3 lava rock, 1/3 pumice and 1/3 akadama, but practically nobody does that. There are different mixes for azaleas and other trees. Look in the Techniques menu strip under Soil for a lot more information.

I just bought a huge batch of hadite to replace the akadama I have been getting shipped from Japan. Most people around here add organics of some kind because of the long hot summer days. Most use ground up pine bark. I used coffee grounds

Thank you guys, I will probably end up using rinsed stones from the beach, sand, leaf litter, and organic soil.

rinsed stones from the beach and sand make terrible soil components to be honest.

The stones will typically not adsorb anythin and will become just "space fillers", where sand will have such small pores between the grains that it will block drainage immediately.

So maybe some substrate instead?