AusBonsai

Same story essentially as my first entry ... as below :

This entry was purchased from a discount nursery in Essendon which had a closing down sale last year (I think October?). I got this and my other "create" entry for $12... I guess $6 each. They were very pot bound, very thirsty and very much on the way out. I repotted them both and they have come back to life somewhat since. I had no plans for them other than to let them grow but the position I have them in is too shady, and so all the new growth has been very leggy and the leaf size is huge. In order to move them to a sunnier position I need to cut them down, so I figure why not cut them all the way down for this comp!!
Basically I want to see what I can produce from a trunk chop in 18 months. We'll see how it pans out ...

And so today I chopped .... and I got myself a bit of a pleasant surprise!

After the chop I decided to do a repot as I hadn't really checked out the roots at all. When I originally got this elm I slip-potted it as it was root bound and pretty sick looking so I didn't want to stress it out anymore than needed. Anyway, today's repot taught me two things :
1. Check where your roots begin before you do a chop. It turns out the trunk kept going below the soil for a couple of cms before the roots began ... if I had checked this properly, I might have cut it back a bit lower , hopefully new shoots come a bit further down the trunk and help me rectify this.
2. You never know what you're going to get. The roots were OK, but as I washed them off I noticed they came from two very distinct levels. I guess it must have been repotted low at some stage and so grew a new set of roots further up the trunk, as well as the original set?? In any case, that meant I was able to do a second chop on the trunk that was once under the soil line and hopefully grab myself two trees for the price of one (see photos attached).

I also potted up some root cuttings for a bit of fun (I have since covered these with plastic to hopefully aid their ability to strike), as well as some regular cuttings (not shown) - even though it's the completely wrong time for this, I figured I may as well give it a go.

Great story, thanks. It is good to have something to tell about each of your trees, little things that make them special. I will be watching with interest.

I think I had hoped for new buds to come in a bit further down the trunk on this one as I had not chopped low enough ... ... it heard me ...
Never mind, there's still time for new buds to form or maybe just a rethink if not - Spring growth might bring a different direction?
As with my other elm, the bonus trunk has also started to push a bit of green so I am happy about that - it may even get the gig as the "tree" for this entry if it shapes up OK!

Branch selections made and direction established ...

... and the bonus trunk for this entry.
Radial spread of shoots around the trunk is not as comprehensive as the other entry, but I reckon there is enough there to work with.

gave this one some attention too while I was at it ...

Good progression, and what else would you do during a cricket rain delay????

Watto wrote:Good progression, and what else would you do during a cricket rain delay????

Thanks Watto... and you are correct :
Rain delay = bonsai & beer!

Perfect.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one taking it back to a stick in a pot! (Think yours has more potential than mine!)

melbrackstone wrote:I'm glad to see I'm not the only one taking it back to a stick in a pot! (Think yours has more potential than mine!)

Sometimes you gotta go backwards to go forwards ...

I'll keep persisting!

... and here's this one after 6 weeks or so - a quick update of both "main" & "bonus" trunks.

lookin good!

melbrackstone wrote:lookin good!

Cheers Mel, looking better than it was 6 months or so ago anyway ... It's going somewhere!

An update on this entry too, with the same sort of work done to it as was done to my other Chinese Elm entry in the comp.