Big Chinese elm won't leaf.

[Poink88]

While you rightfully shouldn't give up on it...do not put your hopes too high as well.

I dug/collected a few cedar elm that are green under the bark...and stayed green for months, even sprouted only to eventually wilt and dry up. Post-mortem investigation revealed that the roots are long dead and never even sprouted. All that time, the tree was trying to come back using stored energy.

I hope this is not the case with your tree though and still wishing you much luck.

 

[daygan]

Daxpg - you didn't answer the question about buds. Do you have any buds at all?

 

[Daxpg]

No there are no buds at all. It had green leaves for a very long time. When the tree froze and I let it unfreeze, after that the leaves started to wilt. So nothing up until now.

 

[daygan]

hmm... yeah, that sounds like a problem. So, it sounds to me like it hadn't gone dormant at all, and then got hit with that sudden freeze...

 

[Daxpg]

Indeed that is what happened. The tree was very healthy. The tree was outside the winter before that and it was fine. So I don't get what the reason is it reacts the way it does now. I'm thinking, thanks to the above comments, it can't take in the water because the ground is holding too much water. So i'm hoping that drying out the ground works.

We've had a lot of very wet weeks after the winter. In fact the temperature only started to pick up a few day's ago.

God I'd feel real bad if it actually died. I was at least hoping to get a sapling from it this year.

 

[rockm]

Don't give up on it until late July. I've had trees that were shocked like that and they sulked for months. I was on the verge of throwing one elm out on the Fourth of July one year, as it hadn't had any signs of life since the previous February. When I picked it up to throw it in the wood pile, I saw five buds just beginning to break on the lower trunk. I put it back and it took off. It was a little weak the next year, but it pulled through.

Give it some time.

 

[JudyB]

Could you possibly put it on a heat mat? Even just a seedling starter heat mat to raise the root temps a bit? I've found that to be a big help with ailing trees. I can give you links to these if you don't know where to look...

 

[lordy]

Although not sensible normally, repotting out of season in order to correct a bad soil/root problem is a last resort. If it is constantly wet, which the OP said would likely happen during the next couple of months, and there isnt a rain protection system in place, AND it has little sign of life, I would definitely (and have with success) change the soil to one that will drain very well, and remove any dead and rotting roots at that time.
Like Rockm, I too saved a Chinese elm that the top half died on. It was harmed by a snow event one year, and it took about 4 months (June) to show any signs of life. That tree is now in the ground and flourishing. Maybe next spring...

 

[Bill S]

Covering the pot, to keep a lot of rain out, would be better than root work on an ailing tree, if nothing else this seems to be a freeze issue rather than root caused. Not to say that the root system isn't compromised, but carefull watering would seem the easier to handle approach to me.

 

[Daxpg]

We'll I let the ground dry out, giving it only water when the soil is dry. I have to say the soil dries really fast so Either the tree is slurping up the water, or the soil let's too much water trough. The moss is disappearing.. That's a good thing right?

 

[Bill S]

The moss going away probably shows drier soil, more likely good than bad, did I miss something, is this in the ground?? If it is, unless it's in a pocket of clay, leave it alone, the ground will care for it better than in a pot.

 

[Daxpg]

It is in a pot not in the ground. Check the pictures at the start of the thread

 

[gergwebber]

Don't worry Dax, your tree is fine. It is just giving us some much needed diversions....

Look at the bright side, at least you won't have to worry whether it is male or female