American Elm Chop

Got this guy last spring (first picture) from DragonTree Bonsai for $15. Robert has several similar to this, but I thought this particular guy had a good start on the nebari. Long story short I had some trouble with pests outside this past grow season so 95% of my plants are back in the screened in porch where I can monitor them easier (still "outside" ). This elm battled through a constant assault of what I call white weevil. I would crush 5 one day, and they would keep on coming. Being back on the porch, the plants only get sun until about noon, it's give and take living in an apartment and not having a yard. I try to rotate the plants 2-3 times a week.

Anyways, this elm is a trooper. Root pruned, Chopped and repotted about 3 weeks ago, 2nd picture was taken today. Trunk is 1". Planning a broom. I'm letting it growout this season, will probably cut back all but strongest (leader) in early winter although I'm not 100% on that yet.

I would like to say that I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't have enough energy saved up to bud out this spring if I kept it large (after the constant bombardments from weevils). My logic was to bare root, prune (about 50%) and do a hard cut on the trunk, which I wanted to do eventually anyways. I figured it could handle the small amount of new buds in comparison to it being large still. --- I've been reading a lot of bonsai + horticulture material and I think this makes sense (for deciduous trees), please correct me if wrong.

This is very cool. I'm tempted to chop down trees in my backyard now!

I would not cut back in winter...well not in my Michigan winter anyway. I'd wait until spring. I've had best results waiting until spring to cut. I've cut really just before the buds think about swelling.

Technically I think I could have / should have cut this guy a little earlier. I'm in 10b (South Florida) for now and our "spring" is more around early February - give or take. This tree has definitely become more gnarly since the last picture, not much to look at for a while.

Small American Elms are virtually indestructible (except for drying out). They don't seem to be threatened by dutch elm disease because they are too small physically. I have about 15 that I brought down from New York in January and they are all thriving.

I chopped 1 in early May and put the top in a pitcher of of water for about 10 days until I saw some white bumps forming on the submerged portion of the "trunk".
I then took the cutting and made a rooting environment in an anderson flat using a bed of Hydroton rocks on top of which I placed an inverted plastic plate. I then wired the cutting so that it would stand up straight and not slip off the plate. Then I covered the plate and the rocks with a 1.5" layer of turface. About a week later it started to show new buds on almost every small branch that I left on the cutting. By the end of June the pot was full of roots and the "tree" was full of leaves. It was defoliated and pruned again. It is now fully leaved out and will be pinched next week. From the beginning the cutting was included in my regular weekly fertilizer regimen.

I haven't lifted the tree out of the pot yet but you can see a very even distribution of roots around where the plate is when holding the pot in the air and looking at the bottom.

They thrive on heavy feeding, full sun and lots of water. You might want to try the Bayer Tree and Shrub systemic insecticide, it should get rid of any chewing or sucking insects and seems to last about 5 to 6 months when used in a frequently watered potted tree. When I used it on the elms in NY I always used to find dead Japanese beetles under the trees. I had an aphid explosion on my Gumbo Limbos down here and 2 days after treatment they were gone.

If you can get it in the full sun it will explode. they back bud like crazy and grow roots like crazy. Root cuttings grow very well too.
Good luck! Have fun, be bold with this tree it will keep on going.

Stu

Americanelmer, what was the point of the plate? To get an radial root spread?

Here's a little update

I let everything grow untouched until about 4-5 weeks ago. Cut everything back to 1 or 2 buds, will most likely do the same this year. Of course, I should have taken more pictures, but this guy filled the pot with roots in this time - these American Elms are thirsty too! Nothing special yet, but you can see where it might be in a couple more years. It'd a bit early, but if I had to choose a front the last picture (#4) would be the front.

Thanks

Nice job, it looks very happy.

progress

the tree looked messy but strong so I cut back what was provided and wired to help create some subtle bends. I took the 3rd photo about a week ago and the first two were taken about 3 weeks ago.

Nice bones there. I can see where this is going.

How's the elm doing....

So, it's April 2014 now. Any photos of how this American Elm is doing now?

Good timing

I repotted it a couple of weeks ago and it's just now starting to push it's buds again. You won't see it but I was extra aggressive with the roots of all of my elms this year (all of them warranted it because this past growth season these guys were happy as hell, furthermore they're for the most part on the same developmental stages). Honestly, I would have liked to repot a couple weeks earlier but I need to make a larger soil sift, sifting is taking far too long. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow when I can.

Will have some wire on it soon! This is it this morning.

this afternoon

will probably wire, cut back and let grow in a couple weeks. Will do that 2-3 more times over the grow season. see you next spring.

About two months later update

Gave it a haircut today.

Curious

The place I work has beautiful Elm trees and I am in need of a new tree in my yard and was hoping to root off a cutting taken from one of these trees. I'm new to this. Do I just clip some new growth, dip it in some rooting hormone and place it in a pot with normal potting soil? Can I use something like this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RUFCX8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER ? I'd really like to know the best way and if I really need to buy this stuff or put it in a pot and keep it moist like we used to do our Choke Cherry runners. Any help would be appreciated.

Where are you located? Theres a decent chance that you could take a cutting, put it in the ground and it will root. Here's an article regarding taking cutting, although for bonsai uses, in general you can follow that. Hopefully it develops a decent root base before winter. Good luck .

Cuttings

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm located in Colorado. The trees I would be taking cuttings from are over 100 years old.

Month later update

Lost a couple small branches on the back of the tree, I've noticed that this can happen sometimes with American Elm and smaller branches. It was on a shaded side too... I flipped it 90 degrees after the prune.