Ulmus Procera

or English Elm if you like..

featuring in what may well be my most extreme make-over..

bought 4 years ago as one of my very first pre-bonsai from a real nursery..

tree was 60€ from a promo corner.. didn't feel like spending a lot of money on my first tree but wanted something "bigger"

you know.. the basic mistakes we all make as a beginner buying our first trees

the tree is made up out of 2 straight parts and 1 curve.
nebari is almost none existant.

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so over the last years i learned that this is an extremely fast growing species.. and if the tree is healthy it rewards with loads of growth..

early spring 2015 i took a saw...

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also made a partial airlayer to rework the nebari..

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grew so fast i could already prune back a few times for better ramification.

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Wow, good work, buddy hahahaha we're best friends hahahaha.
Very daring; here's hoping it works out.

Ed

So is that "double pot" situation you have going on common? I have never seen it but it seems to me to be a very clever way to "grow" nebari. It seems more controllable than a normal pot.

codeman_11901 wrote: So is that "double pot" situation you have going on common? I have never seen it but it seems to me to be a very clever way to "grow" nebari. It seems more controllable than a normal pot.

usually it's used to completely airlayer a part of a tree... (you can google that)
i'm trying to correct some parts of the nebari..
the tree actually has a few roots coming out, but with huge gaps between them.
so i saw an article somewhere (can't remember where) where some guy cut back some squares from the trunk between useful parts in order to grow new roots on those parts.. so i thought i'd give it a shot..

if it fails, i'm going to completely airlayer the trunk a few cm higher and just completely restart on the root system..


problem with some of these trees is: the roots grow very fast and can get very thick very fast..
when being field-grown for pre-bonsai, you can often have an ugly root-base with roots spiralling the tree and overlapping..

Oh I see. I thought you WERE airlayering the entire circumference of the trunk to grow a new radial root spread just above the original roots.

Pretty cool idea, I hope it works out.

Long road ahead for this one too. ut a better future than pic 1. Just keep track of the 3 branches at the base of the main branch on the right; Before you know it it will start bulging in that area.

yeah, i know.. i'll have to keep a sharp eye out on this one because it grows super fast..
if left to grow a whole year without any pruning or maintenance, i'll have new growth well over 1m long and a good 1cm wide..

i do like how the 2 "old" branches are starting to age aswell.. this is an awsome species for beginners imo.. (like all elms)

maybe if i buy another starter it'll be a corkbark elm..

spring image

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the "airlayers" didn't take since it wasn't a complete airlayer..

the tree has been repotted into a wooden growbox and 90% of it's roots were pruned off
this species grows very fast and creates big roots very fast.. it had a twisted 3cm wide root and several other thick and long roots..

enough feeder roots have been left on the tree for it to recover..

i will see if the wounds will close up

otherwise i'll do a complete airlayer next year..

few days after the repotting the buds are opening..

Potted up the roots for root cutting did you?