Elm Broom advice

[philf555]

HI all,

need a bit of advice on an elm (zelkova i think) i am working on. Did a trunk chop on it about 2 months back, training it to be a broom. Has budded from the v cut and has sent out well over a dozen new shoots from inside the v cut.
Questions:

1) When do i remove all excess shoots and leave the 3 i want to keep? (growth is between 1 inch long and 4 inches long... new growth)

2) when can i pinch back on an elm, to develop branching, told i need to do first pinch back to 2 or third leaf,??? do i need to wait until the new growth has hardened off?

any advice would be appreciated

[bodhidharma]

You can let the trunks grow for as long as you like and cut later. It would be good to let it grow for 12 months so you do not make any mistakes with your trunk selection. You can wire all the shoots into place once they harden off a bit and that will give you more to play with. Easier to cut later than make a mistake and start again. You can start pinching back once you have selected your main branches, not trunks. If you are after thickness then you gotta let it grow. Once you have established branching then start the procedure of cutting back to two sets of leaves. this will start your secondary and tertiary branching, probably within 3-5 years time.

[Craig]

Pinch out to the shoots you want whenever you like mate .

viewtopic.php?f=129&t=10149&hilit=+broom+elm#p107950

[philf555]

Thanks Craig this was the broom/elm I did the trunk chop on and you gave me that advice a while back, appreciated, surprised at how fast it shot back.

[philf555]

Hi Bodhidharma, sorry to bother you but your advice is appreciated. Is your suggestion to leave all 12 - 15 shoots on the broom/elm for a season than pick which ones to work with next season, I am trying to avoid swelling around the base of the branches??? Thanks again

[Paulneill]

Hi Phil i did this recently with a chinese elm. I trunk chopped very low with a v cut (late winter) and it grew well over spring throwing out heaps of shoots from around the cut site I let it grow and strenthen , and then eliminated shoots slowly removing weak out of place ones first then left it for 6 weeks and removed the rest and wired the ones i wanted to keep . you should have an idea where you want your 3 branches to come from you could try keeping 5 strong well positioned shoots to keep options open , just don't remove heaps of growth and weaken the tree. also you can try binding the trunk with raffia , fishing line, or what i am using is raffia wrapped under a hose clamp to stop swelling.

[philf555]

Thanks Paulneill, good advice I have already wrapped it with the rafia to try and stop the swelling, it threw an incredible amount of new growth from inside the cut i am only guessing at 12 - 15. will start picking off some of the weaker ones as per your suggestion tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback. Cheers

[bodhidharma]

Hi Bodhidharma, sorry to bother you but your advice is appreciated. Is your suggestion to leave all 12 - 15 shoots on the broom/elm for a season than pick which ones to work with next season, I am trying to avoid swelling around the base of the branches??? Thanks again

Hi Mate, the problem with asking things on this forum is that you will get a lot of advice as everybody has different ways of developing their trees. Some people have only a few trees and work on them constantly and some have lots and can only work on them sporadically. The problem i have giving advice to you is that i have no history on the tree. How old is it, If worked on, how developed is it. If it is a young tree the advice would be different to an old tree etc. I have a 20 year old Chinese elm that i am working on and consolidated the trunk first. After it had age i selected the canopy main branches, I still refer to that as the trunk, and then start selecting the branches off that. I have found that the fastest way to get an older more natural looking tree. Once this is established i start to work on the tips,or ramification, of the tree. That way, for me, it can grow on while i work on other trees. I have thousands to tend to So, if it were mine i would let the top branches grow and establish the tree and then make selection of its canopy. The tree is going to keep growing so swelling will not be a problem. Remember,the tree will keep developing and growing, so your insight into the tree will change a hundred times before it becomes what you want it to be. I will post a photo of the tree i am working on next week and show you what i do. Some people like a leggy looking tree whereas i like a more compact tree with denser foliage and so it goes on. I also am not a fan of broom style but have some because i need to know a little about them. A great read is " The art of Bonsai design " by Colin Lewis. One of the most comprehensive articles i have read on developing broom style.

[philf555]

Thanks Bodhi, The elm is about 6 - 7 years old , couple of inches wide at the base, bought it from a nursery as an 8 foot tall tree, did a trunk chop too high trying a broom and wasted a couple of years on it. Have just now done a v cut lower (correct height ). Know what you mean about different advice. Any is appreciated though. Trying to join a local club to pick up more info. Anyway, thanks for the feedback. Happy holidays.