Advice on digging hornbeam from local woods--soil and treatment

At last I have found a worthy hornbeam to dig and am seeking advice from those experienced on soil type and post-collection treatment. I am an experienced collector and long term bonsaist but not so much with deciduous.

I dug a couple from a buddy's garden 2 years ago. The trunks were only about 4 cm (1.5") and the roots grew over the edges of the plate he had planted them on and then straight down. I hacked them back to little more than 4-6 heavy roots and planted them in my standard mix of lava, pumice, and a bit of akadama in the 3 - 6 mm size range using a fairly deep pot. The sulked last year and came out late with weak growth. This year they look like they will come out with the rest of my deciduous stuff. I will probably not replant until 2017 unless they grow like weeds this year.

Ive dug hundreds of american hornbeams. In my experience if you dig them exactly when the buds are staring to show signs of life they are not possible to kill (even 10" trunks with 16" nebari) they do well in NAPA oil dry or in the ground. They seem just as easy as trident maples in my opinion, including the amount of root reduction you can do at that exact time. Far less luck digging them in the fall. I often put them strait into full sun after collecting.


I have lost some that were unhealthy/large rotten areas in them before being collected. I have also lost them when trunk chopping them 1 year prior to diggin, in the understory forest as they did not have enough light to bud back.