Fat little Chinese Elm

redfokker

Here is my latest aquisition. This fat little guy is right at 5" tall with a full
7/8" caliper trunk. I did repot from a plastic nursury pot. I chose not to do any root pruning (thought it was the wrong time due to the leafy nature of the tree...) I am just trying to keep this one happy in it's new pot for the rest of this season and will look into some styling later. My main concern now is developing nebari. Are there any great tricks other than time and
patience? Thought I would share my new baby with this wonderful group.

Attached Images

mame elm 350x425.jpg (21.9 KB, 325 views)

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REDFOKKER
Albany, Oregon Zone 7

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bwaynef

My one word of wisdom when dealing with Chinese elm ...and its nebari is that you have to be very careful with those roots. It doesn't take long at all for those roots to become too large and overpowering for the nebari.

Planting it in a shallow pot, or over some sort of tile would be helpful in forcing the nebari to grow outward and really developing taper. Short of that, your best bet is to let time develop the nebari for you.

WF

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Aaron_K

Hi Red,

You could ground layer the tree and grow it over the top of a tile to force the roots to grow out laterally as Wayne suggests. I'd also be inclined to remove the heavy leader from the elm and go for a mame broom.

All the best,

Aaron

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meushi

Hi Red,

it's quite funny as I have a 3 years old zelkova in almost the same pot

Mine is going towards a formal broom, it has some lovely taper going on (from 30mm at the base to 15mm at the first branches) but the trunk is straight as an I.

Bwaynef has a good point for the nebari, my zelkova has 2 surface roots that are way too large for its caliper. Now I wonder if I should layer a new nebari on top or try to get extra roots on the same level.

Mike

weeijk

What a noncence, in such a little pot the nebari will not grow that much, that it gets too thick, when it should, cut away those thick ones. I would chop it, just before the active growing season at the red line and make a broom out of it, you allready have some nice branches going in that direction. Its also too high for its thickness. Also the trunk underneat this line I've drawn, looks much older than the trunk above.

Hope this'll help you,

Wessel

Attached Images

mame elm 350x425.jpg (17.8 KB, 100 views)

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redfokker

I can see the chop and broom style idea working. It is still a little scary to me to hack that much of a tree away. I suspect that this tree was an air layer from a substantial branch or something like that. The root structure is not very developed yet. I will try to keep it alive for a couple of seasons and develop a nice rootball. This next spring I will repot and clean and change the soil. By then, I hope that this little guy will be more robust down there...

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REDFOKKER
Albany, Oregon Zone 7

bonsaial1

Blue Max, Your tree appears to be a root cutting rather than a layering. It is easy to tell the difference since the buds have pushed from a shoulder rather than along the trunk as elms usually do. When all the buds come from a central pojnt on top of a rather blunt area, you can be sure that it was a root cutting.

Pro's for root cuttings.

large trunks are possible in a short time because the roots of elms will sprout so easily.

They are almost 100 percent viable since they are rooted cuttings in the first place.

Con's for root cuttings.

hard to get branching in the first years. Branches grow profusely in the first couple of months after budding. They only grow from this spot till a leader is selected.

Secondary branching is slow till a leader is chosen and branching promoted along its surface.

Hard to get proper taper in a root cutting due to blunt tip.

What to do?

Chose one leader if upright tree is anticipated. Let grow to nearly the same size as he shoulder part on the tree. This area needs to stretch out to get some tapering in this area. Thread graft or drill small holes and fill with putty to induce budding at wound area. ( article on this soon).

Best bet for this tree, cut back to broom style, or go on with upright style and practise tree manipulation while thinking about how to do layers for better tree in the future.

This elm was taken from a layer last year. I have made large cuts on the trunk to build taper and introduce movement. The tree is the same proportions as yours, 5" tall by .75" trunk. About six to one ratio. Good for bonsai. I hope you can see the difference that a layer does in taper over a root cutting.

Happy elming, Al

Attached Images

DSCF0389.JPG (24.3 KB, 160 views)

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pdbbonsai

Al, you still say you aren't a teacher?

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m_s_ifland

"Thread graft or drill small holes and fill with putty to induce budding at wound area. ( article on this soon)."
Al, can't wait to read that article. I was just wondering about that yesterday. I was looking at some elms that I trunked choped and some others that I had cut off some larger unusable branches. It seems where the scar is around the bark I'm getting several buds. I was wondering if there was a technique to cause branches to grow without grafing.