Chinese Elm: November 2023 maintenance

It’s been a year since I did much with this tree. I have come to appreciate this one.. There’s a tapering structure to the tree, with a nice array of branches. The biggest flaw is the scarring from my own previous failures in wire management. And it could do with some thicker foliage. I can’t do much about the scars, but I’m having a lot of success in leaf growth with perlite. So let’s try that.

First, the starting point in November 2023, with the inset from 12 months earlier.

December 2023
Not really much difference at all.

The general hypothesis is the prior soil isn’t promoting rich root growth. So the plan is get it out of the pot, clean up the roots, pack it with a new soil mix and some fertilizer, and let it grow. It’s slightly late in spring for this, but…¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Not making the change loses the year.

That is a very root-bound tree. This caught me by surprise. I didn’t realise it had been so long since I repotted this tree.
I mean, it’s a nice thin base. But no wonder I’m not getting much growth.
Teasing out the roots.

After a bunch of work cleaning up the roots, I have them fitting to the pot.

Those two big roots crossing like that is not great. And there’s no other nebari to counter-balance. I wonder if I should cut out one or the other. Or maybe I could have them facing front?

In with the soil, in with the fertilizer, not much actual pruning.

One view.
And another view.
Chinese Elm: November 2023 maintenance
I think this is the best view, but as usual I failed to get this right while actually planting. 🙁

As I said, this is a lovely tree with some very nice tapering. I think there’s more opportunity to trim the upper branches to compactify and build the tapering. I might come back to that in autumn. In the meantime, let’s see how it takes to the new soil.

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