AusBonsai

I've been growing a Chinese Elm in a lifted garden bed for awhile now and finally decided to dig it up. I dug it up in August because that's when Shibui has the best success with Tridents and so have I. My root ball is about 20cm in diameter and pretty shallow, and I left a trunk that is a little over 1m.

All my plants are leafing out including this dwarf Japanese Maple that usually takes forever, and this Trident I dug up a week before the Elm.

I've done the scratch test on various places (base of trunk, top of trunk, side branches, etc.) and it's all coming up nice and green, so it's not dead (yet).

What can I do to encourage it to leaf out and live?

It's currently in a mid-quality potting mix in a large nursery pot, should I amend this with some perlite? Any ideas?

Thanks

Does it have buds at all? If so then it is just a matter of time, if not then there is cause for concern. Try misting with a superthrive or something similar.

It does have buds, but they're small and not doing anything

I really want this plant to survive, so I might give it a treatment with something whilst I wait. You recommend superthrive? And do I just spray it all over?

I too have a couple of trees that received both heavy root work and trunk chops at the end of winter that are yet to leaf out (mainly Tridents and Callicarpa). Keen to hear what people have to say.

I gave mine a seasol bath a couple of days ago in the hope that might get it going, time will tell.

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Try giving it some liquid fertiliser, power feed, mixed with seasol. This will help with stress and energy through to the roots hence to the buds. I give all my newly potted and repotted bonsais a good drink of seasol at the time then 2-3 weeks later a mix of seasol and power feed, and away they go. Most commercial Bonsai mixes have slow release pellet so feeding for awhile is cover for 6-8 months so aliitle seasol/ powerfeed every so often will give them a boost
Cheers RodM

I wouldn't panic just yet , maybe some seasol. My english elms have only just started budding out this last week. Long after my maples and ash.
Peterb

My is :- be patient. About 6 months ago I dug a couple of callistemons and they looked fine for a while, then all the leaves dried and I thought I'd lost them. I pruned them back hard and watered them along with all my other plants even though I thought they were dead. A couple of weeks ago buds started to pop out in various places and now they are looking in good health and I'm glad I kept them.
Hope you have a similar result with yours.

Hi sheepdawg, here are a couple of pics of the callistemons that almost didn't make it. Started with tiny buds that at first weren't even visible and are now racing ahead. Cheers,
Frank.

I have a Chinese Elm that has only just starting showing signs of growth. I also have a beach tree that has buds but no leaves yet.