The Red Elm is also known as the Slippery Elm, but its Scientific Name is Ulmus Rubra.
I purchased this guy in a one-gallon pot as a year-old seedling. It was originally planted in a 80% pine bark compost mix. I did the potting on 4/17/21, before the other trees, because the buds were starting to wake up.
My goal for this tree is to thicken the trunk and develop the roots by repotting it in a larger, 5-gallon Rootmaker container with a more air-retentive soil. I realize I could plant it in the ground for maximum thickening, but I simply don't want to.
The roots were really gnarly, reminded me of a hurricane symbol.
I cut quite a few back. Removed some crossing/binding roots.
I made a flat cut across the bottom. I'm not sure if I feel good about it though.
After removing so much root, I found the tree lacked stability so I also removed the four-foot long leader pictured above.
On photo day! 5/1/2021
I'm using a kitchen-sink blend as a substrate. I ultimately need 50+gallons of substrate to up-pot my newly acquired trees, so using up as much of the material I have recently purchased for my soil tests was beneficial. I tweaked my soil from the previous trees I planted, removing the fine particles (fine sphagnum peat moss and #1 Grit) to increase the saturated porosity. The mix was 3:3:2:2, sifted pine bark, Turface, DE and #2 Grit.
I tested the soil's mechanical properties at 38% Saturated Porosity (air-filled space), and 25% Field Capacity (water-filled space) after draining. Hopefully it will work, because conventional substrates are difficult to find.
I purchased this guy in a one-gallon pot as a year-old seedling. It was originally planted in a 80% pine bark compost mix. I did the potting on 4/17/21, before the other trees, because the buds were starting to wake up.
My goal for this tree is to thicken the trunk and develop the roots by repotting it in a larger, 5-gallon Rootmaker container with a more air-retentive soil. I realize I could plant it in the ground for maximum thickening, but I simply don't want to.
The roots were really gnarly, reminded me of a hurricane symbol.
I cut quite a few back. Removed some crossing/binding roots.
I made a flat cut across the bottom. I'm not sure if I feel good about it though.
After removing so much root, I found the tree lacked stability so I also removed the four-foot long leader pictured above.
On photo day! 5/1/2021
I'm using a kitchen-sink blend as a substrate. I ultimately need 50+gallons of substrate to up-pot my newly acquired trees, so using up as much of the material I have recently purchased for my soil tests was beneficial. I tweaked my soil from the previous trees I planted, removing the fine particles (fine sphagnum peat moss and #1 Grit) to increase the saturated porosity. The mix was 3:3:2:2, sifted pine bark, Turface, DE and #2 Grit.
I tested the soil's mechanical properties at 38% Saturated Porosity (air-filled space), and 25% Field Capacity (water-filled space) after draining. Hopefully it will work, because conventional substrates are difficult to find.
