Rootless Chinese Elm

[Homer911]

I had planted this Chinese Elm in the ground about a year ago and I remember that I didn't attend to the roots before it was planted.

I went to root prune it today and accidentally removed the whole root ball.

Roots pruned good n' proper!

I reduced the top and put some rooting powder on the root stumps. Covered them in sphagnum moss and put it in a pot.

Im not holding out much hope...its down to about 9°C overnight now.

Should I keep it indoors so it stays a little warmer? Place it in a plastic bag to increase humidity?

Am I clutching at straws?



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[shibui]

How does one 'accidentally' remove the whole root ball?
I dug some of the ones from my grow beds this afternoon. Cut the roots pretty hard but I am confident they will grow. It is a bit colder than 8C here at the moment and mine are just heeled into the soil until I can get round to potting them up in a few weeks.
No need to keep it indoors. You could prune the top a bit to remove some of the last leaves though I doubt they will be active now.
Mine have started to sprout new buds so starting to grow again even though it is still winter here.

[Keels]

Arr the old classic chop chop ohhh shari to far

I take elm cuttings all the time and wack them into some soil and they grow like mad. You should be fine. Weather here gets down to minus at night and they never have any issues.

Good luck with it and keep us updated with how you go.

[Homer911]

How does one 'accidentally' remove the whole root ball?
I dug some of the ones from my grow beds this afternoon. Cut the roots pretty hard but I am confident they will grow. It is a bit colder than 8C here at the moment and mine are just heeled into the soil until I can get round to potting them up in a few weeks.
No need to keep it indoors. You could prune the top a bit to remove some of the last leaves though I doubt they will be active now.
Mine have started to sprout new buds so starting to grow again even though it is still winter here.

Yeah, tell me about it!!

The rootball was a hell of a mess before I got to it, I swear governor!

Arr the old classic chop chop ohhh shari to far

I take elm cuttings all the time and wack them into some soil and they grow like mad. You should be fine. Weather here gets down to minus at night and they never have any issues.

Good luck with it and keep us updated with how you go.

Oh, that's reassuring, thanks.

Here is the horrifying mass of evil that was banished from the tree. Looking at in now, I'm glad I removed it.

root_photo resize.jpg

[shibui]

A timely and really good example of why it is so much better to do root work before planting trees in the ground.
Small tangled roots only ever grow into larger more tangled roots after a couple of years in the ground as we can see here.
Fingers crossed that your elm can recover. They are very forgiving.

[Keels]

Here is the horrifying mass of evil that was banished from the tree. Looking at in now, I'm glad I removed it.

root_photo resize.jpg

Did you save that beautiful evil mass of roots? You could make something really interesting from elm root cuttings. I try and save as many as i can when i repot my elms. I actually have better elm trees from root cuttings then i have from seedlings.

[Homer911]

Here is the horrifying mass of evil that was banished from the tree. Looking at in now, I'm glad I removed it.

root_photo resize.jpg

Did you save that beautiful evil mass of roots? You could make something really interesting from elm root cuttings. I try and save as many as i can when i repot my elms. I actually have better elm trees from root cuttings then i have from seedlings.

Yeah, kept it. Its already potted up. Not sure what will happen to it or if it will be worth keeping. I'll report back in 12 months....

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[Homer911]

She is powering on.....

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[Homer911]

6 weeks on.....

What was I worried about?

There were root emerging from the botton of the pot 3 weeks ago.

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[Keels]

There were root emerging from the botton of the pot 3 weeks ago.

Fantastic, looks like the little tree is powering on. well done

[MJL]

Cool thread ... Chinese elm - the zombie tree - unkillable. And I reckon something will happen to that root ball too ... and you’ll have zombie babies ...


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[Homer911]

Cool thread ... Chinese elm - the zombie tree - unkillable. And I reckon something will happen to that root ball too ... and you’ll have zombie babies ...


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Ha ha, I may need to call in some back up.

Zombie babies? It wouldn't surprise me in these strange new world conditions. Very fitting actually.

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[Homer911]

The emergance of the deadly zombie baby!

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[MJL]

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