New Look For An Old Friend

bonsaial1

I traded this elm cutting for a great mahogany cascade stand last spring. The cutting was started by someone in the REBs club. I took the cutting home, it had no roots. The first buds were just beginning to break. I felt that taking home an unrooted cutting, in trade for a stand worth maybe 50.00 was a gamble. But I also felt that if it struck roots I would have a pretty good start on a decent shohin cork bark elm.

I nurtured it through the spring and started fertilizing when I felt it had roots. I developed the first starts of branches , and started training right away. I wired the first starts, and was going for a bunjin look, since the trunk seemed to be in the bunjin formatt.

This is the tree about 2 months ago.

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galleryelm.jpg (34.3 KB, 262 views)

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bonsaial1

The trunk already had the start of some corking and is coming along pretty good. The pot is very small, about 2" in diameter, and about 1" thick. I put the tree on the top shelf of my shohin stand in the Tulare Fair. This is when I started to see a decline in the tree. I don't know if it was the conditions in the building or what. The tree started to look weak and started to drop leaves.

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alkeppler1st.jpg (28.5 KB, 241 views)

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bonsaial1

I did an emergency repot, so to speak, by placing the plant, pot and all, into a larger grow pot. I kept watering it, and placed it into the shade. The plant continued to lose leaves, till every one had fallen off. I resolved myself to the fact that the plant had made a gallant effort to stay alive, but just didn't make it through the summer on the meager root system. I continued to care for the tree, like it was in a coma, and on life support. Somehow I just couldn't bare to pull the plug yet. After about 1 week, I started to see very small, almost the size of a pin prick buds on the tree. Hey.... this thing is going to pull through. The tree was loaded with buds by the end of the week. I decided that the tree should get a makeover. I decided to raise the crown and give the tree an apex. This is what I came up with.

Comments welcomed, Al Keppler

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elmredux.jpg (24.6 KB, 250 views)

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Thomas_J.

I think your on the right track with the new makeover Al.
It almost doesn't look like the same tree. In a few years it'll probably be one of your favorites, especially since you didn't throw in the towel when most others would have.
Thomas J.

ripsgreentree

From "coma" to makeover in one week, wire stress and all!!!!!!

I am so glad that I am not one of your trees!

IF! this little Elm servives I am shure that it will look very nice. With some warm fall weather to recover and grow some leaves you will have a chance for this tree to servive.
If we get a cold spell you could get into trouble. Here is hoping for a warm fall.
I am just as guilty as Al in that I also have the tendancy to work on material "when it is weak or at the wrong time of year" sometimes it is succesful sometimes it is not.
The POINT! to remember is that we should work our material when it is full of vigor and at the peak of health to insure the best chance for success.

Glenn Van Winkle

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ripsgreentree

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bonsaial1

This tree was taken to the Fair on Sept. 10. The repot was done on the fourteenth. The buds began to push one week later on the 20th. The tree sat for another week to make sure it was out of the woods. The apex was not raised till Oct. 9th. This process was hardly done in a week. In fact Sept. 10 to Oct. 9 is almost a month.

I too have had some failures with working on plant material in weak conditions. Obviously the tree had dropped its leaves due to climatic changes being the onset of fall and going to the windy building with no light and probably little water for 4 days. I think the tree is strong enough to do the very small change that I made in it. No wire was added to the tree. The wire that was there was enough to support me just bending the apex upright. The tree was not unpotted, just placed pot and all, in a larger pot with more soil.

This tree will have its roots chopped and be placed without the bonsai pot into a larger vessel to grow one season. The root system needs to be larger and I wish to gain some girth in the branches.

Bonsaial

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bonsaial1

This is how the leaves have grown in the last few days.

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leaves.jpg (36.9 KB, 204 views)

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ripsgreentree

Come on Al which is it, just recovering from a coma? Or is it healthy?

Is it about 1 week? The end of THE week. Or almost a month?

Was it a makeover or just bend one limb?

If the tree was loaded with buds why isn't your latest picture of the tree loaded with leaves?

Our comments on the forum can only be based on the words that a person posts. So why is it that every time I comment on something that you have said you come back and talk like I have mis quoted you. Which post is the correct one? Did I give some bad advice?

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

bonsaial1

Rip, I had a lot of conversations with folks on the forum. I made some promises to alot of people about how I would conduct myself. I felt for the good of the forum, I would refrain from aiming aan attack at you for no reason. I have not commented on any point you have made in this forum, for about two months or more, and I plan to keep it that way. If I don't have anything good to say, or constructive, I will just keep it to myself.

I felt that my last post sort of explained some time frames that may have been lacking. What I will not do is make an @ss of myself trying to defend my motives in posting a simple tree. Why don't you post something for us to talk about, rather than just nit pik this thread to death. I thought we were past this?

Bonsaial

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