AusBonsai

Hi all, I purchased this seiju elm. It's about 40cm in height and about 8cm wide at base. My creative juices are stumped so any advice or virts anyone wants to do to help me along will be greatly appreciated. Will edit and attch pic shortly

Hi Astro seiju are alot of fun to work with. Give it heaps of sun.
I would air layer the top off to make a nice small tree and then cut the base above the first branch to grow the base out again. I have a lanky seiju that I am growing out and I wish I had a top as nice as yours to air layer off

OOps sorry missed adding the pic

Layering is a definite possibility - either that or simply let the tree grow for a season as these shoot extensively and develop quickly. Hard to get inspiration at the moment due to the scarcity of branches but once the tree starts moving that will change quickly. Patience. Simply patience will reveal the direction of this tree. Very nice trunk so it will be well worth the wait.

Hey bretts, where would u take the air layer from? Ur advice confused me when u said airlayer the top the cut off above first branch

At this point in time I would agree with Brett. There appears to be a piece of wire around the trunk where I would do that.
If you decide to stay with tree as is . You need to keep the top pruned, so that energy is diverted to other parts of the tree. When you have the other growth lower down you can let the top grow to get a nice even taper of the trunk line.
Also some movement of that top to match the trunk, watch the moss on the trunk.
It can harbour nasties as we are going into colder weather that is where they will hide in the crevices.

Cheers Pup

sounds good i will try thatrobably around here somewhere mate Cheers Regan

can i then plant the existing base on an angle and train one of the lower branches as a new leader or will the bottom be no good if i air layer the top...would be cook to get two trees out of this hehe

here are some updated pics i just took. sorry about the quality...also, when is a good time to do the air layer and how long would it normally take for an elm?

Just edited my first post to include the mud map. If we go on the angle we can pick up what Pup suggested was a wire mark. But lets call it a swelling. If we follow that swelling it will give best results.
I made a new mud mad to illustrate this from the new angle. I think it might be a bit too much of an angle if we follow the swelling directly but it would be an option to go on a steep angle if you want to aim for something different. Just don't start the air layer from below the swelling otherwise you could end up with trouble.

You could very much use the bottom for another tree but it will need alot of growing out. The new leader could be from the existing lowest branch or you may find something better when it back buds.

I think Late spring is the best time for doing airlayers. Not sure on Seiju but as they propagate from cuttings pretty easy I would guess it could be removed in 2-3 months.

Do what trouble would be caused if the air layer went below the swelling?

reverse taper will occur if you do the layer below the swelling point, it will be unsightly and take forever to grow out if it ever does.


jamie

The flare/taper from trunk to roots may end up less than ideal.

The best time for Ulmus is late Spring early Summer, using the ring bark method 6=8 weeks. That is the optimum time.
If you went below the swelling you would have an inverted taper, and on a Shohin that would look terrible.
If you have access to a hot house you can do it now.

Cheers Pup