Chinese Elm Repot

This is my favorite little tree I have at the moment. I’ve been excited for this repot as it’ll finally put the tree into a pot that is correctly sized. The constricted environment that it will provide will increase ramification and give it a smaller leaf size.

img_3291
Started by cutting the wires on the bottom in the middle, then making a flush cut to make sure they aren’t jagged when I drag them through the root mass.
img_3294
This little guy grew pretty vigorously for 1 year after a repot.
img_3296
Raked out the roots to see what I really had to work with.
img_3298
I put some soil in and tried to get a better idea of what would fit in the pot.
img_3289
I prepped the pot with the drain screen and wire ready to take in the tree. img_3290
I’m going to cut the two wires at an angle and fish them through the main portion of the roots or the ‘shin’ of the tree. You then bend them over once they’re through the shin and use that as a means to anchor the tree down.
img_3297
As you can see here, the wires become buried and hidden in the rootball.
img_3300
I then piled up the Akadama and chopsticked it in.
img_3302
I used Akadama as I can use this to be able to scale the roots and branches to get them finer and finer. For a deciduous tree in refinement this is how you can get the most fine ramification.
img_3304
Then the topdressing. This is to help keep the moisture even throughout the Akadama and help with moisture loss on the top portion of the soil.
img_3308
From the top down. Obviously it is going to get some pruning before the Spring comes in.

It made it through one night of sub 32° weather that I missed, but has leafed out without too many issues.

2 thoughts on “Chinese Elm Repot”

  1. Pingback: Chinese Elm Repot | Nate’s Nursery – Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog

Comments are closed.