big cedar elm update
Sneak Peek
It’s time to do some fall pruning on my big Cedar elm.
Big Cedar Elm Update
This is what happens when you leave a Cedar elm alone all growing season. Literally, I have not touched this tree all year.
As always, method to the madness. When you build trees almost from scratch, dynamic growth is essential.
Just a reminder of where we started back in 2017.
Fall is not the time to do hard-pruning on trees you’re developing (I’m talking about those of us in the temperate part of the world, working on non-tropicals). Selective pruning here is just what the doctor ordered.
I’m a big proponent of tough love for trees in development. This is a great piece of material. And it’s got a very boring branch there on the left. Hey, they happen. I’ll prune it hard next year and give it a good change of direction. Major improvement ahead!
I think this is a good study of how to build trunk movement and taper in trees you’ve trunk-chopped hard. The chop on this one was 2″ in diameter. That means a lot of work to create a believable tapering transition. But with a fast-growing species, it’s not all that hard.
Couple more notes for today. This is a closeup of the crown I’m building.
And you just can’t ask for a better species when it comes to healing wounds. This is 2″ getting covered in just over four years. Very awesome.
Let me know what you think of my progress with this one.
Zach — impressive and interesting tree. How and with what did you make the major cut of the top of the trunk??
Glad to see the comments bug has gone away.
Phillip, since the tree had died back following collection all I had to do was rough-carve out the dead wood. The callus had rolled over nicely and looked pretty natural. There’s more fine carving to do, but that’s for later.
Good demo Zach. There’s been a fair amount of interest in elms recently. Trip to Catahoula to get water elms was cancelled.
Thank you, Ray. Delta did a number on the collecting trip, for sure. Hard to go wrong with any of the elms, they take to pot culture really well.