brewmeister83
Chumono
Hi all!
Since I've been on the forum for the better part of the year I figured it was time to really post some "work in progress" photos of at least one of my trees. Back in March I purchased this Elm in Florida while visiting relatives. It was the only one I could find at the nursery that had no major wire marks, and as bad as it looks had the best roots.
It was in a organic heavy peat based potting mix, so the first thing I did was transplant it into a better soil mix and just water and fertilize the heck out of it over the summer so it would be plenty strong for what I was planning to do to it later this year. Fast forward to this week...
Whatever I did the plant loved it! 20-30" new growth and roots coming out the bottom of a packed pot! Looking over the tree I realized that there were a number of areas with inverse taper where the tree had been trunk chopped several times in the past and the resulting callus tissue had bulged around the un-worked cuts. There were also several branches that had been split and bent, with the resulting callus facing towards the new front I had decided on. All in all, a lot of carving work and branch removal had to be done to the tree.
With so many large areas that needed to be worked on, I decided that the best plan of attack was not to cut such large areas and hope they would heal seamlessly with the trunk. Instead I would work the cuts into connected areas of hollowed shari and multiple uros that would give the tree the image of an old elm that had sustained a lot of storm damage and broken limbs, but was stubborn enough to keep on kickin'!
Since I've been on the forum for the better part of the year I figured it was time to really post some "work in progress" photos of at least one of my trees. Back in March I purchased this Elm in Florida while visiting relatives. It was the only one I could find at the nursery that had no major wire marks, and as bad as it looks had the best roots.
It was in a organic heavy peat based potting mix, so the first thing I did was transplant it into a better soil mix and just water and fertilize the heck out of it over the summer so it would be plenty strong for what I was planning to do to it later this year. Fast forward to this week...
Whatever I did the plant loved it! 20-30" new growth and roots coming out the bottom of a packed pot! Looking over the tree I realized that there were a number of areas with inverse taper where the tree had been trunk chopped several times in the past and the resulting callus tissue had bulged around the un-worked cuts. There were also several branches that had been split and bent, with the resulting callus facing towards the new front I had decided on. All in all, a lot of carving work and branch removal had to be done to the tree.
With so many large areas that needed to be worked on, I decided that the best plan of attack was not to cut such large areas and hope they would heal seamlessly with the trunk. Instead I would work the cuts into connected areas of hollowed shari and multiple uros that would give the tree the image of an old elm that had sustained a lot of storm damage and broken limbs, but was stubborn enough to keep on kickin'!
