It is true that field grown trees develop quicker. I
should have said I was refering to pot culture and
that I was in sunny California. I have a limited
growing ground currently filled mostly with black
pines. I have several elms in the ground and they are
fatening up faster than the potted ones, but not fast
enough for a senior citizen.

I planted black pine seedlings as a newbie and didn't
know all the ins and outs of the process. Out of 25
seedlings some 15 years later, perhaps I have one or
two good ones. Some that may look good with lots of
work in another 10 years.

(If you can imagine grannie out there with her chain
saw lying on the ground to get the right view and
angle)

The thing with putting seedlings into the ground for
bonsai is that one should place roots so that a
suitable nebari is developed. Also one should
consider periodic root pruning. I use a sharpened
shovel and cut one quarter of the side roots every
year, allowing for a finer horizontal root structure.
I also prune the tap root before putting trees into
the ground.

The other thing with ground culture is to be able to
maintain lower branches and to have branches spaced as
sacrificial to obtain a proper taper. (with elms
lower brances are not as necessary as you can take all
brances off when dormant and get new, smaller ones.)

The point I was trying to make is that bonsai is
always about developing the trees for the best
outcome. Just letting trees grow doesn't always give
you good bonsai stock. The idea of starting from seed
is to have total control over tree development.

Kitsune Miko

--- Kev Bailey
wrote:
Hi Kitsune,

I have 15 year old Chinese Elms from seed. The ones
that remained in
pots are under 10mm in diameter. The ones that were
planted out in the
ground four years ago are now 8M high and 120mm
diameter at the base
with excellent coarse orange bark. This year I'm
doing multiple air
layers working my way down the tree until I can
remove the stump. And
this in cold, wet Wales ;-)

Cheers

Kev Bailey
Vale Of Clwyd, North Wales, UK


Depends on how old you are. If you have a lot of
time
the experience of growing from seed gives you
control
over root placement and trunk progress. This means
you don't just plant seeds and wait. You have to
watch, transplant, check root structure, cull, cut
back, add/remove sacrifical brances, have losses,
and
repeat until you have suitable material for bonsai.

With nursery stock you have to accept the nebari
that
comes with the tree and work around that.

I have found Chinese elms are very slow growing even
from cuttings. I have 15 year old cuttings that are
now about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter.

Kitsune Miko



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