Large hornbeam yamadori.

[M_dawg]

Hi all, collected a nice thick hornbeam from my grandads place in central France, unfortunately I was forced to collect the tree then and there (mid august). I collected it withought a lot of Troy and had to pot it up in pretty terrible soil (the only soil available at the time). It stayed in this pot for a couple of weeks until I got home and I put it into some better soil before then putting it into very free draining granular stuff and put it in an air-pot however it has now lost all its leaves. The tree is still alive (cambium is still green even at the furthest tips) and has buds on it (when it was collected it was about to push its second flush). I should note I cut the tree significantly on collection (a couple of trunk chops) and it probably suffered a lot from the repottings.
Other than a telling off for all these mistakes I was wondering if anyone could give me advice for next steps
Option 1
I should leave the tree to winter and wait to see if it will bud out in spring.
I am worried that as the tree lost its leaves prematurely it had no time to prepare for winter and hence might not survive it.
Option 2
I bring the tree inside, ‘sweat it’ (use the black bag technique) and hopefully it will break buds and I can keep it under a grow lamp indoors until next summer. This would effectively be tricking the tree into believing it’s spring hence saving it from a potentially harsh winter. It will also have more energy now than at the end of winter and hence might be more likely to make leaves to feed it and survive.
any feedback would be appreciated.
I am based in south of UK, winters are long, wet and can frost/freeze quite often, but never really goes sub -5 degrees. None of the local trees have yet to lose leaves. I have a similar situation with an oak I collected too so any advice on that would be great too

 

[Scrogdor]

I don't know much about hornbeams. But I collected an Oak this summer( wrong time), potted it, and it died. I think trees dropping all their leaves after collection is generally a good sign though, if their leaves stay on and slowly fade, that's a bad sign. I think the biggest whammy outside of collecting now, was repotting it again in new soil after two weeks. Whatever fine roots it was beginning to establish were probably destroyed when you repotted it and changed its soil. Might have better luck black bagging it under a grow light, not sure how a tree collected at the wrong time repotted twice, with significant trunk chops is going to survive -5 degree weather.

Definitely don't keep moving the tree around, the vibrations interrupt root soil contact and further stress the tree. These are all mistakes that I made my first collection, I didn't realize how delicate collected trees are. I have read about some people collecting in autumn with success though, just takes a lot more care. I'm sure someone else who knows a lot better than I do will comment. Good luck

 

[M_dawg]

I don't know much about hornbeams. But I collected an Oak this summer( wrong time), potted it, and it died. I think trees dropping all their leaves after collection is generally a good sign though, if their leaves stay on and slowly fade, that's a bad sign. I think the biggest whammy outside of collecting now, was repotting it again in new soil after two weeks. Whatever fine roots it was beginning to establish were probably destroyed when you repotted it and changed its soil. Might have better luck black bagging it under a grow light, not sure how a tree collected at the wrong time repotted twice, with significant trunk chops is going to survive -5 degree weather.

Definitely don't keep moving the tree around, the vibrations interrupt root soil contact and further stress the tree. These are all mistakes that I made my first collection, I didn't realize how delicate collected trees are. I have read about some people collecting in autumn with success though, just takes a lot more care. I'm sure someone else who knows a lot better than I do will comment. Good luck

Thank you, I think I will set it up in a warm spot indoors tommorow