Chinese Elm Growth

[deeno]

This is my first Chinese Elm. I bought this as a pre-bonsai back in August 2019, apparently it’s about 5 years old.

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I repotted in a slightly larger pot to grow it on a little and had my first attempt at wiring it before it popped out any spring growth. I just removed the wire last night as it was cutting in.

Here it is now.

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What I’m not sure about is the growth. It doesn’t seem to have put out many new shoots and any new growth seems a bit spindly and it’s never really thicken up. I had it mainly under some light shadecloth that gets full afternoon sun from around 12pm. It was initially in full sun but got some burnt leaves so I moved back under the shadecloth.

I don’t have a heavy or strict fertiliser routine but it has received some every month or so along with Seasol. I’ve put some more Osmacote Native slow release on it last night and moved it to a position that will unfiltered morning sun to see if that changes anything. Any ideas about what else I could do if anything to give it a boost, should I just increase my fertiliser rate?

Thanks,

Dene

[Jarad]

Hey Mate,

I would say the shade cloth was slowing down the growth.

As long as you water regularly (don't let it dry out too much) and fertilise it should throw out new growth quite regularly.

Chinese Elms can handle full sun, but if you're worried you can always put it under shelter on those scorching days.

[shibui]

One possibility for slow growth is the variety. there are many different types of Chinese elm. From the little I can see of this one it looks like it could be the 'catlin' type which is extremely slow to grow and also to ramify. Catlin tends to put out few long, straight shoots where other types grow more freely. catlin leaves are darker green , smaller and tend to be almost evergreen.
My initial thought was fertiliser as a limiting factor but you have applied some each month (maybe)? A little more often would not hurt, say every 2 weeks to see what difference that makes.
Small pots will reduce growth but I see you have this one in a plastic nursery pot which should be OK but won't give best growth as the pot will limit water availability, root spread and nutrient availability.
Water can also have a big influence on growth rates. If the pot gets a bit dry most days that will dramatically reduce growth rates. Scorched leaves does not always mean too much sun. It is usually an indicator of less than adequate watering which shade can alleviate a little. A Chinese elm in development should be able to manage with full sun as long as the pot is adequate and watering is adequate.

Try improving watering, increase fertiliser and see what happens. It is probably a little late in the season for good growth now. Most of mine have slowed dramatically in the late summer heat as usual.

[deeno]

Thanks Jarad and Shibui. I think it’s possible it’s a little bit of everything that you both mentioned.

I’ll leave it in full sun, boost up the fertilising and check the pot for moisture in the afternoon to see if it could use more water.

However I suspect that you may be right about it being the Catlin variety. The leaves are fairly dark green and it’s growing the long straight shoots. (Most have been cut off in the pic) Here’s a closeup of the leaves.

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I have a cutting from a larger tree which I hope is a Chinese Elm. This one got a bit dry and maybe I damaged some roots on it... hopefully it’ll survive.

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[DangerousDave]

I don’t want to hijack your thread deeno, but I have a similar position with a tree.. so I hope jumping in here is beneficial for you too..

I have a Chinese elm that I am now wondering might be catlin variety.. I’m having a lot of trouble getting it to ramify. Cut back to two or three buds but almost invariably only one ever shoots.

Can anyone provide any advice on how to identify if it is catlin? And also if it is worth persisting..? It’s an ok tree, but without improved ramification it’ll never be better than ok.

Thanks

[deeno]

No worries DangerousDave.

The more input from different people the more we can all learn.

[shibui]

Not sure whether this will help or just confuse the issue. I just took some photos of the different Chinese elms I have here for comparison.
I've started a new thread to explore the range of Chinese elm types.

https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 34#p273434