AusBonsai

A couple of months ago I purchased a Chinese Elm from Red Dragon bonsai in Currumbin. It was several years old and very bushy so I took it out of the grow-bag, lightly pruned the roots and potted it into a grow pot and thinned and started shaping it.
In the last few days "suckers" have grown from the ends of a couple of the pruned roots near the surface. If I let these grow is there any reason I should not separate them once they are a bit larger to make a couple more elms? And what would be the best time of year to do this.?

You can seperate them. I'd do it in winter once the eaves have fallen off.
Cheers
Kirky

Chinese elm are notorious for growing from root cuttings. It is one of the popular methods to propagate them and you can get great mini bonsai from a nice thick root. After I dig Chinese elms out of the grow beds I get lots of them sprouting from the roots that are left in the ground.
They only grow from the proximal (end that was nearest to the trunk) end of a cut root so I'd say you have cut a few roots but not removed them from the root ball. Normally when repotting you would comb out the root ball so that any roots that are cut will fall away rather than be put back into the pot.

Thanks for the advice I will go with it and wait until late winter, not that we have much of a winter here on the Gold Coast. Then I'll separate them and put them into individual pots. The original elm will be ready for a root trim by then anyway.

In many places Chinese elm do not go completely dormant but I have had no problem repotting/ root pruning them, even severe root pruning during 'winter' so don't worry about 'dormancy'. Anywhere from July to September should be fine. I have even root pruned some with new, spring shoots and they don't seem to mind.

I just wish they would go dormant here in Perth! lol

cheers,
Jeff