AusBonsai

I found these two mallsais at a low-price-mart, drying up on a shelf. The pots were bone dry and they had many shriveled leaves. I haggled and got them both for about 28 AUD.
I took them home which meant they were transported outside in 10 degrees C for about one hour.
Once home I soaked the pots overnight. The next day I repotted them in 100% scoria/lava rock (only substrate I had at hand).
The not-chinese-elm is an airlayering and had healthy but not a lot of roots.
The chinese elm had snaking/tangled bigger roots + plenty of fine feeder roots.
I gave them both a light root-trim.
So they both had OK root systems imho but they have now lost all leaves/most leaves. IF they survive I consider them raw-material to work with since I have no desire for S-shaped trees, so LOTS of structural work..

Took some root cuttings off of the chinese elm this time We don't have bonsai-nurseries here in Sweden so I find it hard to pass up any chance to get some potential material - even if it's mallsais..

Questions:
Thoughts on survival, and how to improve their chances? It's late autumn here and daylight is getting scarce.
Any thoughts or experience with 100% scoria? Water more or less often compared to pumice?
What exactly is the non-chinese-elm, a Carmona? (Sorry for bad pics of leaves.)

For my mind, Pumice and scoria are interchangeable with each other. but I am not a technical soil scientist
When in mixes they provide a similar amount of water hollding properties and do the same job to open out the mix.
For me with my inorganic substrates, i water everyday as they do not stay waterlogged and we can get warm days even in mid winter.
if you water only every second day then ensure that it stays moist and not dry out completely

Ken

On closer look the scoria seems to be rather large. is there any smaller particles in the pot?
Here my mix is 1-4mm particle size for small trees (shohin and smaller) and a mix of 1-7 mm for larger trees.

Ken

Much appreciated Ken! The size is 2-8 mm so there are some smaller bits in there.

Quick update on the pair:

Both pushed new leaves rather quickly.
The Carmona(?) and the Chinese elm I cut off the dead branches and the ones showing no signs of buds. I haven't thought of styling choices yet - the chinese elm is a mess in all sorts of ways...
They're both in my work office - the place where the overflow from our house ends up..

The Chinese Elm needs to be cleaned out sometime, otherwise it'll get out of hand. It is good to see that they're both back in bud though!

If you have the time, I'd recommend watching these two vids to get a handle on pruning and wiring. (Not that you'll need to do much wiring yet.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n2MIkk ... onsaiMirai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx7duQo ... onsaiMirai

Cheers mate, I haven't seen the one on detail wiring yet! Will do It's inviting to do something radical with the Chinese Elm, but first getting it back to good health.

"Corona killed my bonsai" - there's a headline for ya'!
An update on these two. Me and the wife had COVID over the Christmas holidays, not too bad though. BUT this meant I couldn't swing by work and water the trees there...

The results after almost three weeks without water (and not much sun, since winter here):
* Carmona (planted in 100% lava rock) = very dead!
* Myrsine africana (planted in 100% lava rock) = dead
* Two young ficus cuttings (planted in potting soil) = fine!
* Three Chinese Elm root cuttings (planted in 100% lava rock) = atleast two bouncing back! (They had barely pushed leaves when I left them to dry.)
* Chinese Elm mallsai (planted in 100% lava rock) = didn't skip a beat, keeps pushing new leaves! (They are indeed though as old boots)

Oh well, I got more space in my office now

Crikey, sorry to hear about the covid attack, glad you and your wife are better!

Figs and Chinese Elms are survivors, that's for sure! Carmona, not so much.

Onwards and upwards!

I planted the Chinese Elm in my garden cement-pool together with two new root cuttings and two with leaf. I put the biggest root cutting over a rock with some aluminium to hold it in place We'll see how it goes - looks like my previous Chinese elm did not like the winter...

Fingers crossed for the Chinese elms outside in the garden. I gather from American growers that these do have a limit to cold tolerance. I saw it listed as suitable for USDA hardiness zone 5B.
According to the map the south east of Sweden is mostly zone 7 and 8 which should be fine for Chinese elm. Further north and inland the temp zone moves down to zone 5B then 5A before reaching some areas of 4 and 3!
Note that the cold hardiness zone system is only broadly indicative. Local elevation, sun exposure, soil type, etc will all have an impact on what plants will do well in any particular garden.
Good luck with the new trees.