AusBonsai

Great improvement by using the air layer. And I like the projected future for the rough trunk tree too. While Stevens option is still a good one I think it produces a tree that is a bit predictable in the trunk movement.

Treeman

I have been doing the same to several chinese elms in the last 3 years . I have 2 more to layer this year and I have 2 tridents to do also . I agree the value has increased a lot ! Ill get some pics up of mine . I love layering cork barks I found go as deep as you can and you cant go wrong . You gotta go deep otherwise they can bridge the gap.

Treeman hope you don't mind me adding these. I think layering is invaluable provided the material you are layering is worth doing.
Here are several elms that have been airlayered in the last few years . The broom one was layered around 6 years ago if memory if right ?. The largest layer has a base of about 120mm . I cant wait to set a few more on trees I would of overwised try to sell or discard . The little elm in the plastic pot was separated last weekend

Mathew, All I can say is Excellent! Very nice trees! (especially #2) Can we see it by itself?
Yes the first attempt failed on this tree. I had to recut to get roots...

Mike. Sorry forgot about this thread. Heres the seji elm in it's new leaf. Tree is 14cm tall. I cut back to 2 sets of buds several times a year.

Matthew wrote:Mike. Sorry forgot about this thread. Heres the seji elm in it's new leaf. Tree is 14cm tall. I cut back to 2 sets of buds several times a year.

rsz_rsz_20160910_105901.jpg

Very nice!

So, time to repot this thing. The pot was packed full of roots.

After a bit of a trim. I had let the branches grow out to about 120mm twice over summer.


The roots before cutting. As you can see the trunk is now completely hollow. Could be a problem.....more in a minute.





After cutting the roots. I can start to look for the beginnings of a nebari in 2 years I would guess.





Normally the hollow wouldn't worry me but in this case the trunk will not thicken at the arrows. Instead as it grows it will just roll into the hole. This will leave a narrowing at that point of the trunk as the part above it continues to thicken.
I was going to fill it with concrete but I didn't have any concrete handy. Then I thought about a couple of bridge grafts to heal over the hole quickly, but I couldn't have been bothered with that either.



As it stands at the moment. I might have to do something about that hole at some point.

Update...