Ulmus procera progression. Building a tree.

[bodhidharma]

This is more for people who have acquired an English elm and how to develop them. These are my favourite trees but if you ignore them or turn your back on them they will be bent out of shape within a fortnight. Our trees only look good while we attend them and English elms need constant attention. Once you have learnt to keep them alive through good horticultural habits you must then refine them. This is one of my favourite trees and most older posters know this tree well. I would like to show what you can do with a tree within a five-six year period and i dont apologise for the amount of photos. I hope this will help take off a few years in the development of your elms and also, maybe inspire you to tackle an English elm. I will try and cover branch building in detail as building Nebari has been covered before. I dont consider myself an expert but can maybe save some beginners some time and heartache in the development of their own trees. I have learnt that if you do the work you will get the tree. Your tree, to progress it, must get your undivided attention twice a week. Then it will reward you. Six years is not long in the scheme of things.

[bodhidharma]

This is now the continuation of the above and i look forward to updating this in another six years. I am sorry in advance for the long winded thread but i had fun.

[cuwire]

Hi Bodhi

Very post.

When you get to question answering time can you tell me if the Bonsai pot in the early stage has kept the trunk itself basically the same size and was this the reason for the bonsai pot.
Also with your rebuild have you successfully pulled the split/broken branch back to good health ..... did you use some magic gue ?

Cheers thanks for such a post

David

[Magzy]

G.day mate, i must say thats a fine looking elm you have. I went to buy a English elm last year and when i asked about one i wanted they said to me if you dont have a cool spot for it dont bother because they really like the cold and it wont survive. This confused me a little because the nursery is a 5 min drive from my place but it is in the valley and im right on the beach where i do get hammered by a lot of wind but other than that it would not be that much cooler from where i am. I am still tempted to go and get one and prove em wrong but paying a fair bit of coin for one and then it dying on me is holding me back, so i guess im asking what type of climate do they like and would it grow well here.
Cheers,Mark

[Dario]

Bodhi this is ever so helpful and a very timely thread for me having collected my first couple at the end of winter.
Never too many pics for me!
I love procera and I look forward to working with them and I am sure that you will have saved me a lot of time and heartache with this thread
I will hit you up with a few questions down the track, but just wanted to thank you!
Look forward to the branch building post at a later date...I have put this thread in my favourites on the pc.
Cheers, and thank you, Dario.
EDIT amazing tree by the way!

[Hornet]

G.day mate, i must say thats a fine looking elm you have. I went to buy a English elm last year and when i asked about one i wanted they said to me if you dont have a cool spot for it dont bother because they really like the cold and it wont survive. This confused me a little because the nursery is a 5 min drive from my place but it is in the valley and im right on the beach where i do get hammered by a lot of wind but other than that it would not be that much cooler from where i am. I am still tempted to go and get one and prove em wrong but paying a fair bit of coin for one and then it dying on me is holding me back, so i guess im asking what type of climate do they like and would it grow well here.
Cheers,Mark

I have an elm, i believe it may be a chinese, its growing nuts here even with the heat.

[eliass]

Great thread Bohdi and awesome tree .. Have just acquired one, will post photos in 10 years

[Glenda]

[bodhidharma]

When you get to question answering time can you tell me if the Bonsai pot in the early stage has kept the trunk itself basically the same size and was this the reason for the bonsai pot.
Also with your rebuild have you successfully pulled the split/broken branch back to good health ..... did you use some magic gue ?

For me putting it into a Bonsai pot was motivation to develop it. I had already worked on the trees roots for a couple of years and the base certainly did not need developing (500mm wide) I have a lot of trees and if i do not put the tree in my face it would have sat for another couple of years. I am a great believer that the trees you want to work on should be placed where you have to walk past them first thing in the morning. This motivates me to think about it. I had to shorten the leader after the limb fell on it and i scored the cambium on both parts of the breakage and pulled them together and then sealed it with wound paste. It is still healing and if becomes a weak link it will have to go and i will start rebuilding the top again.

so i guess im asking what type of climate do they like and would it grow well here.

The tree has to become dormant Magzy i.e lose its leaves. Otherwise the tree will weaken and die. a friend of mine in Melany, QLD tried one he got from me and it died after three years. Check your neighborhood and see if there are any Maples, or Elms growing in yards. If there is then you might have success.

Cheers, and thank you, Dario

Glad i could help you out Dario. They are a rewarding tree but very time consuming.

I have an elm, i believe it may be a chinese, its growing nuts here even with the heat

How long have you had it Hornet There are some Chinese elms that are semi-decidious and will survive but i have not heard of a semi deciduous Procera.

Have just acquired one, will post photos in 10 years

Not long Eliass in the scheme of things, it will pass before you know it.

Thank you Glenda.

[Dario]

Hi Bodhi, when you collect English Elms do you bare root them? And for a beast this size, did you do any prep work a season ahead or did you just grab it in one go?
And can you also remember roughly how wide and deep you dug from around the trunk in terms of the root ball you kept on the tree when collecting it?
I was slightly surprised to note when viewing the progession photos, that the main chop on the leader where it changes direction has not healed more in the time frame.
Is this normal and how is it currently going?
I thought this species heals wounds very well and rolls the bark over cuts quite thoroughly...and being that you have a side branch on the right of the wound, and the apex on the left of the wound, that it may have rolled more bark over?
I am just curious and perhaps it is healing just fine?
Any comments from you regarding collection and the healing of the trunk chop are very much appreciated
Cheers, Dario.

[bodhidharma]

Hi Bodhi, when you collect English Elms do you bare root them? And for a beast this size, did you do any prep work a season ahead or did you just grab it in one g

Hi Dario, no prep work was done for this trunk. It was an eight hour dig (with lots of rest between) and you can be quite brutal to the root system. In an Elm forest all the trees are interconnected rootwise and you literally have to chop through roots to free up the tree you are targeting. My aftercare was over the top, as i built a small glass house for it, and probably not necessary.

I am just curious and perhaps it is healing just fine?

My observation of English Elms have been that they will heal anything on the main trunk before they get to work on the branching and all of the trunk chops on my elms are slow to heal. But if you look at the main trunk where it has had large branches cut they are doing fine. I open the cambium, or pick at it to accelerate the healing. Remember though that the canopy on this tree was crushed which would not have helped my cause.

Any comments from you regarding collection

I dig, take them home, bare root them, flat bottom them and soak in a mix of seasol and profert for a couple of hours then into a large grow box. Leave for two growing seasons Lightly pruning but not taking off any branching. After that you can treat them the same as any other tree but you must, if possible, repot yearly after that. Cut all the branching back to the first secondary and start branch selection.

[Dario]

Hi Bodhi and thank you for taking the time to answer all of the questions in such detail!
All very interesting and useful information
Hmm, profert hey...another product I am yet to hear of that I will now look into.
Crickey an 8hr dig! You must have been slaughtered after that!
Thanks again!
Cheers, Dario.
PS Bodhi I have read that procera seeds don't have a high success rate when sowing...do you know if that is true?
And if so, does that mean that an Elm forest is mostly formed from sucker growth over time?

[bodhidharma]

does that mean that an Elm forest is mostly formed from sucker growth over time?

To my knowledge, yes. The whole forest i dig at is interconnected via their root system

[alpineart]

Hi Budhi , appreciate the effort not only on the tree but for the tutorials as well . I know the effort involved uploading a topic as big as this one . I have now identified several elms here including my Forest .Plenty of motivation here to get a bloke out there and rip into some stumps . Thanks for posting such an in depth topic and progression .

Cheers Alpine

[bodhidharma]

Thanks for posting such an in depth topic and progression .

Thanks Alpine, gotta do my bit on this forum and promote Bonsai for the future. We need experienced young people to give our trees to ,so its our job to motivate them.