this last winter i bought a dwarf chinese elm at a local
nursery. this
spring i took it out of its nursery container.. in which it had
been
growing for quite a few years and was breaking through into the
ground. it
has a huge muddy root ball.(even some clay) I had removed about
1/3 off the
bottom of the ball... and cut some pie shaped wedges into the
muddy mess in
about three different spots... then placed it in a large
growing container
with bonsai soil and trunk chopped it. It has been growing
nicely. prolific
shoots and buds. the growth is prolific on one side of the tree
only
though. on the other side... buds break.. but dont thrive...
the two
branches that have managed to develop on that side are lagging
behind,
growing much slower than the other side. Im thinking that this
may be from
the rather "blind"root pruning i did. could this be the case?..
that i
removed too large a section of certain roots feeding this side
of the tree?
if so... will it rectify itself? how could i fix this? im
afraid i were to
graft anything over there is nothing there to feed the branch
anyway.


It is always good policy to completely bare root a tree that is
just coming out of a nursery container -- especially one with
"mud" and "clay." This lets you totally untangle the roots so
you can see how they are distributed. However, in this case
that's water over the dam (cliché alert!).

Chinese elms are among the most resilient of plants (except for
my two groves, which turned up their toes (cliché alert!) this
spring for a totally unknown reason). Just give you tree ample
fertilizer, clip hard on the bushy side and you should restore
balance in a year or two.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden

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