Victrinia Ensor
Omono
(The following is a piece from the February edition of my local club newsletter, since it's doing so well I thought I would post it here.)
A “Hail-Mary” is what you do when you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. You cast your lot to the fates and do your best, hoping for a miracle. This Japanese Gray Bark Elm (Zelkova) was that kind of case. Forgotten in a nursery, it had escaped the confines of it’s can through a drain hole and had a 2 inch root that had to be cut off of it by the time we came across it. Not knowing what we would find in the near bursting pot, we still couldn’t ignore the shear trunk size or the interesting bark on the tree. Combined with the reasonable price we paid, it was worth the risk to try to salvage it.
The tree was cut from it’s can and it was indeed a long heavy club that reminded me of Jabba the Hut and went deep into the pot to the cut off root at the bottom. Once the worst of the lower wood and undesirable roots were sawn off, there were only a few small roots left and still a considerable club to contend with. So it was put into a deep 16 inch wide pond basket with the hopes that it would recover and work towards developing a healthier root mass. We watched, fed, and watered hoping for the best. It would make it or it wouldn’t. A true “Hail-Mary”.
Two vigorous years later it was time to see how it was doing and see if we could put it into a shallower Anderson flat. Any questions about the effectiveness of pond baskets were ended in our minds. What we found was a mass of roots so dense and fine that it was like Christmas as we gently picked away the soil. And much to our surprise there was a perfect division between upper roots and lower roots, with the wide heavy end of the “club” perfectly exposed for removal. After two minutes with a saw, the die grinder was opted for. At first we used a core box bit, but switched it out for our “big gun” the Ninja Master. (An inch wide with 4 cutting heads, it’s a wood hog for big jobs. But it’s so sharp it cut wet wood clean and smooth.)
(Photo by Dale Cochoy... who is also the man you can buy it from.)
With the tree bottom level, we were able to stand it up on it’s own, and it settled into the shallower pot depth perfectly. It’ll be left alone again for another couple years, with a plan to build the crown, and continue the progress of lowering the base and developing radial roots.
It is a Zelkova which by it’s very nature is an ideal species to tolerate this kind of work… but even so… it still felt like a little miracle to me.
Victrinia
(This last photo is current as of posting the thread.)
A “Hail-Mary” is what you do when you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. You cast your lot to the fates and do your best, hoping for a miracle. This Japanese Gray Bark Elm (Zelkova) was that kind of case. Forgotten in a nursery, it had escaped the confines of it’s can through a drain hole and had a 2 inch root that had to be cut off of it by the time we came across it. Not knowing what we would find in the near bursting pot, we still couldn’t ignore the shear trunk size or the interesting bark on the tree. Combined with the reasonable price we paid, it was worth the risk to try to salvage it.
The tree was cut from it’s can and it was indeed a long heavy club that reminded me of Jabba the Hut and went deep into the pot to the cut off root at the bottom. Once the worst of the lower wood and undesirable roots were sawn off, there were only a few small roots left and still a considerable club to contend with. So it was put into a deep 16 inch wide pond basket with the hopes that it would recover and work towards developing a healthier root mass. We watched, fed, and watered hoping for the best. It would make it or it wouldn’t. A true “Hail-Mary”.
Two vigorous years later it was time to see how it was doing and see if we could put it into a shallower Anderson flat. Any questions about the effectiveness of pond baskets were ended in our minds. What we found was a mass of roots so dense and fine that it was like Christmas as we gently picked away the soil. And much to our surprise there was a perfect division between upper roots and lower roots, with the wide heavy end of the “club” perfectly exposed for removal. After two minutes with a saw, the die grinder was opted for. At first we used a core box bit, but switched it out for our “big gun” the Ninja Master. (An inch wide with 4 cutting heads, it’s a wood hog for big jobs. But it’s so sharp it cut wet wood clean and smooth.)
(Photo by Dale Cochoy... who is also the man you can buy it from.)
With the tree bottom level, we were able to stand it up on it’s own, and it settled into the shallower pot depth perfectly. It’ll be left alone again for another couple years, with a plan to build the crown, and continue the progress of lowering the base and developing radial roots.
It is a Zelkova which by it’s very nature is an ideal species to tolerate this kind of work… but even so… it still felt like a little miracle to me.
Victrinia
(This last photo is current as of posting the thread.)
Last edited:
