Dead trunk?

[tsylana]

Hi. I am a newbie who has never done bonsai before. First, I am searching for a Zelkova, and found one online.
The seller describes "A small deadwood area on the trunk still needs to be treated."
What does this mean? Is this very tricky to deal with? Would this be a good choice? I attached the pics. Need some advice. Thank you!

 

[darzuo]

I would choose something else as a beginner. I'm not an expert but I would guess that you would need to shave it away to healthy tissue and then have a lot of growth and probably some well placed grafts to get that to close. You could leave it as is or try to create a hollow, but it may rot away over time. I would think that no matter what you do it will always be a feature of the tree, barring chopping the trunk below that point. Either way, it's not a project I would recommend for a beginner's first tree.

 

[River's Edge]

Hi. I am a newbie who has never done bonsai before. First, I am searching for a Zelkova, and found one online.
The seller describes "A small deadwood area on the trunk still needs to be treated."
What does this mean? Is this very tricky to deal with? Would this be a good choice? I attached the pics. Need some advice. Thank you!

View attachment 620124View attachment 620125View attachment 620126

Fixable with correct procedures. Think five years. Cuts are positioned on the side, reasonable for development. Nebari is relatively well distributed.
Summary: the grower had the right idea but did not show continuous care and high level of attention to development so far. The pot probably is worth $10 add $ 25 to $30 for the tree.
This assume that there is no disease present in the areas to be healed. The foliage shows no sign of fungal or insect damage at this point.

 

[The Barber]

If it were mine I would put in an oversized shallow pot and let it grow wild for a bit, and only keep the bar branches pruned off. I would also clean the dead area till you get to live, green cambium, the putty the dead area so it encourages it to heal over. Elms generally heal pretty well. Plus the bigger pot would give it some room to grow and thicken up a bit.