Late hawthorn repot

[Beano]

Hi,

I recently commissioned some pots but they unfortunately didn’t arrive until well after their intended trees leaves out. One is for a hawthorn and I was wondering if it is safe to repot now, or should I wait until it’s warmer or wait until bud burst next year? It is likely that some root pruning will be required. Thank you for any advice!


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[Grant Bowie]

Probably depends on how “out” the foliage is out. If its is still tight and not elongated then it may be OK for a light repot. If it is in lush, elongated and soft growth then forget it; unless you trim off most of the new growth and leave for a week or so for the remaining growth to harden off, then do a light repot.

Or leave for next year and really get it into good shape; you can repot in Autumn as well of course in leaf.

grant

[shibui]

I have not tried hawthorn root prune late so can't give you first hand advice.
I have repotted a number of other species well after conventional wisdom would have it safe and all so far have survived the experience. Many drop leaves and look quite sick for a few weeks but then recover.
A great deal will depend on how far out the foliage is as already pointed out by Grant as well as how many roots you remove in the process. Note that I repotted a juniper this week thinking it would be a minimal root removal but ended up removing almost half the active roots so be aware that what may seem minimal may turn out to be a bit more.
The other thing on your side is that hawthorn is a bit of a weed here in Australia so can probably tolerate things that other species may not.

As an alternative to late spring repot many bonsai growers are finding late summer repot is also quite a good option after the lush and urgent spring growth is finished.
The next option is to wait for next winter. How good is the tree? How much of a gambler are you?
Whatever you decide please post the results so the rest of us can learn more.

[Beano]

It has extended growth big time so it is well and truly in leaf. I’ve already had to pinch some faster shoots. It’s a pretty good tree (to me) and I wouldn’t be happy if it died so I’ll probably just hold on until next year. I bought this one from PeterB. It’s a pretty happy hawthorn and tolerated last years repot root prune well but I did it at the right time. One of my other hawthorn still has not leafed out and only has 2 green buds so I’m a bit worried about it.


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[shibui]

If it helps I also have one that has no buds yet so probably deceased.
It helps that I have plenty of others. What really hurts is that it is always the better ones that pass on.

The time to next safe repot will pass quite quickly. You can console yourself that the time will be well spent improving the ramification or size or something. far too may potentially good tree development stunted or set back by rushing into a bonsai pot.

[Watto]

I think hawthorn are a bit sensitive to root work out of season and I certainly would now wait until next August. A photo after the repot would be good to see, hint, hint.

[Beano]

Haha! I don’t know, Watto, every time I feel proud of a tree and take a photo of it, it up and dies on me! I love the pots, I hope the trees look good on them. The other tree I’m putting in is a crepe Myrtle. It shouldn’t bat an eyelid at the out of season repot coming up... hopefully it fits...


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[gordonb]

If you gently tease the roots out, and remove only enough root/soil to allow for repotting (1cm or 2cm depending on size of roots mass/pot) you Should get away with it. Leave the bulk of the root-mass untouched, just trim surfaces to allow for fitting with 1-2cm of new soil around. If there needs to be a lot of root reduction, best wait for either summer dormancy, or autumn.