AusBonsai

Hi all,
I recently purchased some sort of English Elm which needs some TLC.
It has lost most of its leaves, the pot it is in is a small cut down black plastic pot and the soil is quite compacted. The tree is still alive - its green under the bark on most branches and there are buds that look like they are swelling. I'm assuming the tree may have been scorched/dried out and dropped it leaves.

The soil is my main concern, as mentioned it quite compacted - it had alot of moss type stuff on the soil. After I got it home about 2 weeks ago I teased out some of the roots with a root hook around the sides and bottom and put it into a new pot the next size up and added some new soil to fill the gap.

When I water it the water takes quite a long time to soak in and the top stays pretty soggy, It has been in the shade and it s been cool last couple of day so that may not have helped.

What I am thinking about doing is having another go at it with the root hook (but no root pruning) and almost bare root it and report with new soil.
Do you guys think I should do this or stick it out until repoting season late winter/spring?
I'll post some pics tonight.

Thanks

Is it a developed tree, or just a Stick in a pot? if it has some development put into it or is real good stock then you may want to go slow

You can tease out the outside edge of the roots a little and then put into a larger pot till late winter. then do a root prune and soil change then
Else just give extra care 'till then.

Ken

kcpoole wrote:Is it a developed tree, or just a Stick in a pot? if it has some development put into it or is real good stock then you may want to go slow

You can tease out the outside edge of the roots a little and then put into a larger pot till late winter. then do a root prune and soil change then
Else just give extra care 'till then.

Ken

Its a developed tree Ken, basically what you've suggested is what I'm doing. I think I will have to be careful with the watering and ensure the soil dries out a bit before watering.

Here's some pics...
In the last pic you can see the pot it came in on the left.

Nice Trunk and well worth keeping healthy till you can repot
Keep your eye on it and should be fine. You have to work hard to kill an elm

Ken

Thanks Ken,

Forgot to mention since those photos the recent hail storm we had took out about half of the leaves and a few fine branches.