AusBonsai

3 out of 3 (or 5) still alive, you're doing well!

Gave this elm a repot today also,
It's trunk is too tall I think (like I initially said - it pays to discover where the roots start before you go ahead and trunk chop!?).
I'll most likely take it back to a grow pot next year and then do a ground layer on it, but thought in the spirit of the comp it would be nice to have it in a pot that wasn't black plastic for the finale!

Same deal as for my other elm entry in the comp. This one has a "not bad" nebari developing under the soil, I have left it low in the pot (a little) again this year to see if it will develop on further ... when it is exposed I think it helps to alleviate the feeling of reverse taper - so I look forward to potting it a bit higher in the future.

Final Submission.
Enjoyed getting both my elm entries up for this comp.

For this one as I stated earlier I'll probably look at ground layering at some stage to reduce the height of the trunk and "up the impact" of this tree. But for this season ... clip and grow and get some stuff happening with branching hopefully, particularly on the left of the tree. In summary, further refinement and prepare for the ground layer.

So here's what I did to the "bonus trunk" today. It has always had a reverse taper problem, and I was root pruning and potting up my Chinese Elms today as I had noticed bud swell on a few.
In the middle of root pruning this one I decided to change tack ...

I went for a ground layer instead ... because the reverse taper had bugged me long enough. This last bit is clearly the key, I would be less confident of this working if it wasn't an Osmocote Native tub around the layer...

I'm pretty sure this is far from ideal in terms of time of the year, and paired with the fact I already cut the roots back a bit before I was hit with inspiration ... I'm not sure this was my best idea - but hey, it was a bonus trunk anyway so I decided to stretch my boundaries.

Live and learn!

A month or so later and this ground layer is budding out pretty nicely ... a good sign I think.

and so the day of reckoning ... there had been plenty of growth so I was feeling good about this layer! I took off the container and carefully removed the soil to get a peek at the new roots.
so I guess it's back to the drawing board. I cleaned up the layer site, reapplied a wire and the root hormone and refixed the osmocote container to try the whole thing again, we'll see what happens in a few months this time ...

R3 - your posts are fantastic. Informative, honest and fun to read. On this one - like you - I am waiting for the big reveal and .... tic, tic ... time passes and .... poo tickets! Not a root to be seen!

Alas - back you go again and give it another rip. It’s somewhat too early for a beer (perhaps) but at least you can reflect on all the successes within this post and chug down an ale with some satisfaction when a thirst hits.


Bonsai teaches me patience.

Hi MJL, it's beer o'clock!

Ryceman3 wrote:Hi MJL, it's beer o'clock!

Well played. Indeed it is. My chosen poison on the fine eve is an ice cold Canadian Club & Dry (don’t judge!) - with tad more CC after a reasonably busy day.

Bonsai teaches me patience.

I decided today was as good a day as any to have a scratch around in the soil and see if this time there was something to see ... It turns out - there was! I found nice healthy white root tips peeping out below the Osmocote container in a relatively regular spread. I'll give it a little longer before I cut the layer off, but at least things look to be back on track!

Yay! Good to know take 2 did the trick!

melbrackstone wrote:Yay! Good to know take 2 did the trick!

Cheers Mel, it was beginning to freak me out. I mean, the top of the tree was growing so well and so if I found no roots again this time I had no idea how this could be... zombie roots!
To be fair, I haven’t pulled the cover off so it’s all hearsay until the full reveal - but much more confident after today.

Well done! I know all too well the feeling of sitting and watching layerings and wondering if they will root. It's always a great joy to see those new roots emerging!

Go you good thing!