Looking for help with lacebark elms

[Curdog1960]

New member here, with a new post

I'm 57 years old, and live in central Indiana, and weather is getting cool. A couple of years ago, I bought some lacebark elm seedlings from the Arbor Day Foundation to work with. Elms were chosen since the grow fast, and knowing that I'm starting this hobby late, fast might be a good thing In spring, I saw one trunk with a caliper of 2 inches, so I chopped it at 4 inches high after the leaves hardened off. Then unfortunately I had some chest pains, ended up in a hospital where I had cardiac bypass surgery and was unable to do anything with the tree.

In the short period of time when I was recovering, the tree grew from the 4 inch trunk chop to about 7 feet! Yup, they do grow fast lol. Anyway, my situation is what to do next and when? Do I chop the trunk at 8 inches and leave in the ground, do I chop and move to a pot, or something else? And... should I do it now before it gets really cold, wait until next spring at bud break, wait till the leaves harden off? Any advice would be most appreciated.

 

[Cypress187]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Wilson]

Can you upload a photo or two, so we can see what is developing in terms of design options.

 

[discusmike]

Pics will help,is there movement in the trunk??

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

In theory, each segment added to the trunk should be shorter than the previous. For the chop down, in late spring, I would chop to about 7 inches from the ground, meaning the new segment will be 3 inches, as the first was 4 inches. I would probably prune off all branches, leaving just the first two segments of trunk.

I probably would dig up either this early spring, don't want the roots to get too deep. A large nursery container makes developing a trunk easier.