yamadori elm in danger

kioboy · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 3:13 am Post subject: yamadori elm in danger

The back story: This is an elm i gathered from a farm near my home eight years ago which has been in ground training for nebari improvement. Work proceeded apace until last fall when we had an unusually hot fall and it dropped 95% of its leaves about 4 weeks before its brothers started their color change ...ah the crux emerges! It seemed to me at the time that this was a crucial development as the tree was not producing enough sap to drop to the roots for the following springs leaves. Sure enough as leaf bloom arrives I'm seeing more and more branches with that shriveled look that usually spells the end. Now the question is this, with the tree in a weakened state trying to feed all those new buds does it make sense to reduce the amount of buds by pruning or will this just stress it too much and hasten the end? Any and all tips appreciated , I'm a little frantic because of the prospect of losing one of my first actual bonsai. Josh

imholte · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:47 am Post subject: Re: yamadori elm in danger

The tree is using its resources that is has left to put out new leaves to create more food. When cutting off alot of roots it is advisable to remove a bit of the branches to match. This can work well since you can decide what will be lost instead of the tree doing it for you.

But since you are unsure of the extent of the dieback I would wait to see what survives and what doesnt and then remove what is dead.