Prune - Chinese Elm [1] and Chinese Elm [4]

With some nice weather over the weekend, I thought I would get some hard pruning done on a couple of my elms. The first elm (Chinese Elm [4]), had a nice basic structure with a couple of overly thick branches too high on the tree which needed removing. Here are some before and after pictures.

Front - before prune

Front - after prune

Back - after prune

After pruning the unwante growth and branches from the tree, I thought the apex looked too high on the tree, and was too far to the right for it to look aesthetically pleasing. I decided to draw a virt of my intended apex I will be aiming for in the next few years.

Looking at the apex, it looks like a candidate for an air layer. Depending on the trees response to the prune, I will consider an air layer this year.

Front Virt

I also had enough time to give a prune to my favourite SUMO elm (Chinese Elm [1]). The branches didn't have enough ramification, so I decided not to prune back to a bud as I am confident that the branches won't die back (like on a maple, or a birch). Here are some before, and after shots.

Front - before prune

Front - after prune

Prune and Repot - Lonicera nitida 'Elegant' [2]

As the buds began to grow on one of my Loniceras, I decided a repot into something more free draining would be needed to get the most growth out of the tree as I could. It went into my deciduous mix of 3 parts moler clay (cat litter) : to 1 part multi purpose compost.

The pot was cramed with fine, feeder roots - always a good sign - of which a good 50% were removed. Here are some before and after pictures.

Front 1 - before repot and prune

Front 2 - before repot and prune

Front 1 - After repot

Front 2 - after repot

To balance out the root removal, I gave it a good prune to direct growth in the places that it was required, and remove any unwanted, overly thick branchs too high on the trunks. During which, I uncovered an interesting trunk with taper and movement, but from an angle that would mean losing the smaller trunk.

Front 1 - after prune

Front 2 - after prune

 Front 3 - after prune

 Front 4 - after prune

In the end, I decided to keep the smaller trunk and see how it grows. I will probably end up taking it off, and sticking with Front 4. Here's a virtual of what I will be aiming for if I decide to lose the trunk.

Front 4 Virt



Repot, Wire and Prune - Chinese Elm [3]

Before repotting this tree I decided to give it a prune and a wire to clear out the clutter, and wire the thicker lower branches further down before they get too thick.

Tree before pruning or wiring

As you can see, all the branches were growing in an upwards direction (typical of younger trees). I wouldn't to recitfy this issue by wiring the lowest branches horizontally, and giving them a prune to encourage secondary branches to form.

Tree after prune and wire

The canopy has taken on a more domed shape, and once the tree has filled out in a few weeks should be looking a lot better.

After repot

Whilst repotting I discovered an area of the trunk that was previously covered and decided to pot it up higher in the pot to show this. Now that more trunk is visible, I'm hoping for more branches lower down to fill the gap between soil and branch.

Repotting Season

Over the last fortnight I have managed to repot six trees, with my Ficus due one this Saturday. Here's few pictures of the outcomes. As you can see the majority of the trees have been potted up into something bigger to maximise growth. I used my usual mix of 3 parts cat litter : 1 part compost.

Acer palmatum before repot

Acer palmatum roots

Acer palmatum after repot

Chinese Elm [1] after repot

 Chinese Elm [2] after repot

For this tree I decided to reveal a bit more of the nice nebari underneath and removed some ugly surface roots around the back.

Chinese Elm [3] after repot

Chinese Elm [4] after repot

Chinese Bird Plum after repot

I felt it has been a productive few weeks and my repotting skills have greatly improved as a result. Now I feel far more confident about repotting trees.