AusBonsai

I have these chinese elms from a garden I maintain, they are 4-6 months old, in pots 2-3 months. What do I do next? Leave them be for a year or 2 as they are; should I be plucking off leaves or anything? I don't want to lose them as I had to remove the original tree so there won't be any more seedlings.

You could put them in the ground to thicken them up or just leave them in these pots for now for a couple of growing seasons then repot them in larger pots or grow boxes.
Cheers

Where is the original tree??

if the original tree was in the ground and you chopped it down and left the roots you can just about be sure you will find new suckers popping up all over the joint from where the roots spread too. i would put them in a grow box and thicken them up, chop em back let emm grow, etc and keep doing that till ya get the desired trunk thickness


jamie

As said by others
These ned to be left alone either in the ground, or in a big pot for a year or 3 to thicken up
Then think about what you have got and what can be done with them\

Ken

The tree was on a farm near Nowra,NSW, it was about 80' high & quite beautiful. It is shooting from the stump & hopefully will be allowed to grow.

Would foam tomato boxes do to grow on in? Do they need separate boxes (I'm assuming they aren't a specie to clump)? I'll keep cutting them back as I want multi branching like the original.

Might also be worth putting some movement into the trunks now while they are probably still a little flexible. Wiring them up and bend Just be careful that the wire doesn't eat in to the trunks too muhc as they grow...

NathanM wrote:Might also be worth putting some movement into the trunks now while they are probably still a little flexible. Wiring them up and bend Just be careful that the wire doesn't eat in to the trunks too muhc as they grow...

wiring now wouldnt be a prob for sure to get some movement, just as nathan has said watch for the wire biting in as the seedlings will grow really quick!

it will just be a matter of apply and reapply, or you could cage wire which is what i would do, much better option and you can leave it for longer and you can still get just as much movement,

for now once or two boxes with thre or so in each will be fine, when they get bigger seperate boxes will definately be needed. with the tree that has been chopped reshooting it is definate that you will end up with lots of suckers coming up any where from 2 metres to thirty or fourty metres or more away, if ya can get them you will be on a winner, airlayering might be the go after they thicken up though

enjoy

how bigs the stump wide and high could be intersting piece there

Stump is about 4' across - would have been a wood turners delight.

bugger the wood turner, cut the roots and dif it up, 4 inches across would make an awesome tree, whether it is bolt straight (formal upright) or has twist and turns (informal)





jamie

4 foot across, not 4 inches