Finding/recognizing bonsai trees in nature (Yamadori)

Important: Yamadori may only be dug up with permission! What you need: - Pick / pickaxe - Axe - Pruning shears - Saw - Root claw - Carrying frame / load carrier There are other tools, but in my 30 years of experience, this selection of tools is sufficient. The carrying frame should be as light as possible. Most suitable trees are found in stony areas, where the pick is best suited, in sandy soil a spade is valuable for digging. These shrubs and trees sometimes appear shaggy, chaotic and simply impossible at first glance, but when you start to clean out the plant, interesting shapes often emerge.

This is what a good hawthorn raw plant might look like in nature.

Cut off the branches that are too long and clean out the weeds at the base. Now you have a clean workplace.

Dig a trench 10-15 cm wide around the tree and then clean the roots.

You can cut through the thinner roots with pruning shears, the thicker ones with a saw or by chopping with an axe.

Once the root ball has been prepared in this way, you can try to pull the tree out of the hole. However, the plants often have a strong taproot, which you can cut through with an axe.

The most difficult part of digging up the plant is getting it out of the ground. It may help to leave a thick branch for pulling the plant out, which you can cut off later.

Use a root claw or a piece of wood to remove as much soil as possible from the roots, otherwise the tree will be too heavy to carry. However, leave a little of the soil on the roots because of the symbiotic fungi, which the plant needs.

Once the tree is out of the ground, a rough branch and root cut is made. The hole must now be filled up again so that nature can regenerate. You should spray the roots with water before removing them so that they do not dry out. Wrap the root ball in a damp cloth and place a plastic bag over it.

The work is now complete. To be able to transport the tree easily, a lightweight aluminum carrying frame is just the thing. This allows you to carry the tree longer distances without straining yourself too much. You should attach the tree securely to the stretcher.

At home, the tree is given a fine pruning, pruning wounds are treated with wound paste and then you can plant the tree in a growing tray. The soil mixture must be loose and able to store water well (pumice, lava, gravel, sand, ...). Trees freshly dug out in winter must be kept frost-free over winter. As you have to build up a completely new branch system, it is a good idea to graft these new growing branches with a redthorn.

This is a future virtual design of what this tree could look like in 8-10 years. We will show the branch structure and grafting in another article.