I just got these two trees. I want to increase the trunk size on both so after some research I decided I will put them into bigger pots. The person that had them before me obviously had a vision for the chinese elm, as he cut off some branches to shape the trunks course. But I envision the end product as a lot shorter. Say about a third of the height it is now, where there aren't any branches. Will that be okay to do? What is going to happen when I cut the trunk?

Hi if you want to increase the size of the trunk and or tree you can put then into a bigger pot for sure or what I would do is re plant them into the ground for a year or two I believe that is the quickest and easiest way to get a larger trunk/tree.

tjtallbull wrote: I want to increase the trunk size on both so after some research I decided I will put them into bigger pots. I envision the end product as a lot shorter. Say about a third of the height it is now, where there aren't any branches. Will that be okay to do? What is going to happen when I cut the trunk?

Agreed with the transplanting it into a bigger pot idea, it would add some girth with time... lots of time. Now, if you want to speed up the process a full notch, planting it into the ground would definitely help a lot more. Or you could use this method:

www.growingbonsai.net/grow-and-cut/

(Note: There are even more methods and this one would explain your previous question regarding how cutting up your tree´s trunk might affect your tree integrally)

Oh... another thing you could try in order to shorten the trunk´s length is an airlayer. Here is the general know-how:

www.bonsaiempire.com/basics/cultivation/air-layering

Hope all this might help,

Alain