AusBonsai

Too late! I can't stop getting trees either. I'm far too impatient for this hobby. It's nearly July!

The roots weren't too bad, one side of the pot was jam packed full though, the other side ok. I suspect it was an air layer or a ground layer in the past. The soil was weird, pretty much like mud with fine river sand in it. Odd texture.


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This one is coming along nicely:

April 2013


Air layered off the top and got a new bud September 2013


New leader February 2014



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Cool.

From what I can see here I wouldn't let the next branches start to far up.
Imo a better tree would be to keep it a little more compact. Otherwise you run the risk of ending up with some similar problems to what you had earlier.

Good job on the layer and the cut already looks a treat.
The bud was nigh on perfectly positioned!

I was trying to get the new leader to thicken up a bit. I had the leader bent at the origin of the thin branch off to the right side, so that it would become a back branch and the thin branch would then be the leader, but I was worried it wouldn't thicken up if I kept it that way. It looked pretty good when I did that though, except a little thin.

I would remove that branch under the leader - I think it will cause a bulge where you want the trunk to transition

Update:

or


Getting there!

Improving. Thinned the top yesterday and wired some apex branches. The one with the peg is just to draw some thickness of the leader toward the back, as it's located a bit too far forward on the trunk chop.

getting there slowly as all good trees should

Ken

Here's an update. Excuse the random branch and the overgrown top, I'm trying to fatten the top half up more then I'm sensing a chop coming along and reg rowing the top again.

Sorry not trying to hijack this thread but chinese elm and cedar are not the same right. Last weekend, i visited two nurseries. One called chinese elm (correct) and other one called cedar ???. The leafs are pretty much the same on both tree. Why?? may i ask or simply one got the ID wrong.

David

tuma wrote:Sorry not trying to hijack this thread but chinese elm and cedar are not the same right. Last weekend, i visited two nurseries. One called chinese elm (correct) and other one called cedar ???. The leafs are pretty much the same on both tree. Why?? may i ask or simply one got the ID wrong.

David

I have seen children change name tags just for fun. Maybe the case here.

Well, I got a bit clipper happy and chopped the top of this tree a few times. It routinely shot me a nice new top so eventually chopped it close to the back branch to try and force buds lower on the leader and get a new leader at the same time. Alas, finally, I was not rewarded with a new shoot. Instead it shot back at the junction of the leader and original trunk. So I have removed the old leader and wired up a new one. This time I'll leave it alone so it fattens up better before reducing the height. I also think bougy fan is correct about the 2nd branch. I'm hoping a new one grows higher up, somewhere slightly more suitable, then I'll remove it.

Old topless leader with new shoot at trunk junction:


New leader wired:


From the top, drink bottle is front of tree:


Front left:

As predicted by bougy, the 2nd branch was starting to look weird and causing issues near the old chop. The new top I regrew has thickened well and the height reduced again down to a big bud. I've removed everything else except the first branch at this stage. I think the trunk is finally coming along and now I just need to get branches where I want them. I also decided that the branches I had looked weird wired down how I had them, so will probably look at growing the new ones without doing that, maybe it will look more natural then.

I will probably repot this tomorrow and likely do a ground layer when it's warmer.

Well done for having the courage to start again when you weren't happy with the progress
cheers
Peterb

The taper transition is much better now, good work.