Thank god for this video. I have an imported Chinese elm that I haven't known what to do with for the last two years. This summer I chopped about 60% of the trunk off the top leaving one curve, much like the tree in this video. It had that hideous S curve spiral thing that looks so contrived so I made the decision to finally chop it back. After watching this video, I now know exactly what to do from this point. Thank you for such an easy to understand and comprehensive Chinese elm video. This really has been the simplest and most to the point video I've seen on this species.
@gregs1902 ай бұрын
Love it, you are one of if not the best online bonsai mentors.
@simonedevito11192 ай бұрын
thank you so much for this video, it's actually the first video of yours that I've watched, thanks to the YT algorithm for making me discover this wonderful channel...I absolutely have to see your other videos hehe🙏
@simongore292 ай бұрын
Incredible video - thank you. I found this technique applied to beech in one of Harry Harrington's books. You can also snip the terminal leaf in half. I can confirm this works very well on this species in UK climate. Thanks again 👍
@edmanescurc2823Ай бұрын
Thsnks for the video and the information,I'm gonna aplply in my elms.
@MokumaBonsai2 ай бұрын
Crazy how fast These guys develop, I am growing a few if them in the field. When I dig them out i‘ll be sure to Give this a try
@Ollieslife1012 ай бұрын
I have done this technique (well almost the same way) with my Green Island Ficus! Works great but gotta watch the tree cuz if u do it too soon especially in Michigan you will be like 1-2 inches of dieback. So it's slower for the ficus than what you showed for the Elm.. Once I defoliate and do a twig trim I'm gonna try this on my Chinese Elm cuz I had no idea this could work on it. Very similar to the one you were working on not the larger trunk one.. I've tried to just let it do it's thing with clip and grow and the canopy wants to stay flat so this spring I'm considering wiring it up. Like most of my other "bonsai/pre-bonsai". I wanted a clip and grow but this elm just won't work for me and my skill set at this point. I got like 15 rootstock green Jmaples and like 7 grafted cultivars so since I have a good amount all about 3yo I'll have to do some experiment's and practice my clip and grow knowledge on those green Japanese Maples. And hopefully my Hubble's Super Cork Japanese Maple takes off.. gotta get it in the ground in the spring to increase it's health and size.. but the day I got it I stuck on an air-layer so if that takes which looks good so far I'll have 2 of those very hard to get trees..sold out everywhere al year long.. but if anyone wants a Hubbles Super Cork air-layer or graft onto one of my rootstocks let me know under this comment and we will figure out a way to contact eachother..all I'd want is you to pay shipping or pick it up free.. that's if any take and if the air-layer takes but heck u never know especially since those r so hard to find..it's a stick in the ground now and it's already corky.. Lol sorry for rambling I know I can be too much. But I have no one to share my passion with and my wife doesn't get it..she only loves her succlents, which I don't get they all look the same to me honestly...star shapes and necklace shapes that's all I see.. I showed her my succlents and blew her mind what u can do with a few species my few portulacaria afras and new this year a larger crested something. Def no bonsai but I'm treating it as such lol like the pot and soil not tree work cuz it doesn't have branches but developes a wood looking bark with age. Just something different that I seen at a bonsai nursery and luck have it my local Lowes got in one 3 gallon crested ?? succlent and I got it 75% off sweet talking the people who water the lowes plants and they were like anything ubeant plant wise let me know 75% off.. so I got that and a clump of 3 white paper bark birch trees and a cool bloodgood that's going in my garden. OK I'm done..don't hate me lol bless this community 🙏 🙌 😅
@annas7892Ай бұрын
sounds like next season ive got some work to do on my chinese elm. its well shaped from a nursery stock but i think i want to increase the canopy volume. Firstly also im trying to keep it alive as i had not had much luck with those in the past. And since the tree arrived about 2 months ago it has only grown a little as it was getting accommodated to its new home.
@AquaPawInnovations2 ай бұрын
Thats an awesome work...do you still use the same soil mix or changed the combination of perlite, cococoor, akadama, lava rock
@BonsaiNorthwest2 ай бұрын
Excellent video, so much information packed into nine minutes. Great videography too, thanks.
@wreagin12 ай бұрын
I arrived at a similar technique. I will leave an extra leaf from what I feel is needed on a shoot and use tweezers to remove the corresponding last bud. Instead of removing leaves at the time of the first round of trimming I remove the inner older leaves at the time of the second trim and so on. I only do it this way because I'm naturally very cautious and the slippery elms I love respond well to it. I'm always stoked to get your insights so I can add more tools to my techniques. Cheers!
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Slippery elms? Wow, had to look that up. Learn something new every day.
@AugustDay-b8k2 ай бұрын
Very nice. Thanks for showing us your technique.
@glennpawl2 ай бұрын
Thanks Eric for another very informative video. Question: how late in the growing season would you perform these trims for cold winter areas like my Zone 6?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
I tend to stop around mid September- about 8 weeks before things start to cool down here. Andrew did a video on this recently- kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4vXhnyLrbyJpcUsi=ZuVzwN2vWsasvSwm
@glennpawl2 ай бұрын
@@Bonsaify Thank you, that was helpful...and what a beautiful birch!
@whitecaps02 ай бұрын
Going to try that with a few elms this year thanks!
@richarddorfman51702 ай бұрын
Quite informative, Eric. I live in northern New England, overwinter my trees in a greenhouse and usually put them away early November. Would I leave the last flush of growth on the elm through winter then cut back early spring when the tree buds begin to swell, or is it better to do the final cutback in Fall...or even just before the trees are put away for winter)?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
I would do it right before you put them away - basically wait for them to be nearly dormant, then pluck the leaves that are left and trim the twigs back to 1-2 buds. If you wait for spring you'll be allowing the tree to put on growth in the wrong place, so basically wasting time.
@noloenglish2 ай бұрын
Such a well put together video for Chinese elm development! 🌳 I’m going to apply this to the corkbark elm I bought from you!
@blueridgebonsai91552 ай бұрын
This one is so good I had to watch it twice and save it to my bonsai playlist. Wonder why it doesn’t work well on zelkova? How about a followup blog post with a list of which trees this works with and which it doesn’t.
@DavesBonsai2 ай бұрын
Amazing!!! Great video!
@sueb13172 ай бұрын
So helpful - wonderful results! How would your technique change if the inner 2 leaves had been damaged by e.g. insects?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
I don't think it would change, unless that had adversely affected the health of the tree. (e.g. if it stopped growing.)
@sueb13172 ай бұрын
@@Bonsaify Thanks so much!
@Benw37902 ай бұрын
Good stuff. As long as you have an alternating leaf pattern and a lot of flushes of growth, during the season, this should work really well. Crepe Myrtle don’t have the alternate leaf pattern but respond well to this technique for me.
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Ah, yeah didn't think of them. The technique would be different slightly on a paired-leaf species, but should yield similar results, I just haven't tried it much yet.
@9daywonda2 ай бұрын
Informative as ever Eric.
@caseykja2 ай бұрын
great/thoughtful , as usual. Are you feeding any differently when using this technique?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Nope, but a good feeding schedule is definitely important.
@ponderanceofagravedigger25642 ай бұрын
Very very good video! Thank you!!
@bandaloukham82732 ай бұрын
Thank you ......!!! So nice......!!!
@GeneBrodeJr2 ай бұрын
Would this work on ficus trees, too? I’ve got a ~15 yr old ficus microcarpa that I want to get denser.
@stevetippin2 ай бұрын
I have watched this video three times now beginning to end. SO great! One question: What kind of elm is it. In some shots, it looks like a Chinese Elm; in other, more grown-out shots, it looks like a Siberian.
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
It is a chinese elm - but it's the regular corkbark variety: 'corticosa' not Seiju or Catlin. I've actually never worked with Siberian Elm.
@stevetippin2 ай бұрын
@@Bonsaify Siberian Elms have larger leaves than Chinese Elms. They're pretty plentiful in my area (Waterloo area of Ontario, Canada) and so I have a bunch. I really like them.
@bobmccarlie3822 ай бұрын
What fertilizer did you use on these trees. How much and how frequently.
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
A mix of Miracle gro at a low dilution and BioGold pellets. I couldn't say exactly how much.
@harrietb21412 ай бұрын
Thank you 🌳
@jgreen83362 ай бұрын
Bruuuuh. Incredible.
@DarthMasiah2 ай бұрын
thanks for the tips
@tayezlkАй бұрын
Great job! I am a Texas resident- do I leave my elm bonsai outside or bring it inside?
@BonsaifyАй бұрын
I'd say outside - but keep it from freezing below 28F.
@tayezlkАй бұрын
@@Bonsaify Thanks you so much.
@neynahnehnah14852 ай бұрын
I loved this video. Very nice tips. But you don't need to add music to it. I was fighting with my phone to muted when there was that repetitive music and unmuted when you were talking. 😅
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Thanks for the comment. I've been leaving music off some videos more recently particularly when there are no time-lapses - but the alternative is just dead audio. I guess that's what you prefer...but it seems weird to me. Maybe some ambient noises.
@rossefamily3622 ай бұрын
Hi and Thanks! I am in 7a in the mid atlantic. I worry that if I werer to try many of the instructions on your videos in my region at the same time of year it would be a disaster- for instance pruning an elm in December in Maryland would be bad. Any way to address this discrepancy?
@BonsaifyАй бұрын
The Dec pruning in this video is actually just a fall cleanup. I don't live in a cold climate so not sure how to advise you - but if the tree is already going/gone dormant then on elms at least you can trim the twigs. (winter pruning isn't always a good idea on other species.) Note that looking at the condition of the tree shown in the video in Dec and comparing that to the date you normally see the same species look similar in your climate would be a good solution. (e.g. trim in your climate when the leaves are mostly done with fall color and are dropping.)
@rossefamily362Ай бұрын
@@Bonsaify thanks very much...love your videos-so informative!
@tayezlkАй бұрын
My question is referring to the winter season. Elms stays outside or inside in winter?
@BonsaifyАй бұрын
Outside - but all bonsai need protection from temps below 28F.
@POUL59Chill2 ай бұрын
สวยมากๆ ชอบมากครับ
@corymorris58002 ай бұрын
Do you think this same technique would work on deciduous cottneaster?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Probably - but I haven't tried it. The vigor of the plant is part of the key - it needs to be exploding with growth.
@themichaellerner2 ай бұрын
Eric, would you apply this technique, or some version of it, to a much older, more established Chinese Elm?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Yes, in fact I did it to the Chinese elm in this video prior to starting the work shown in the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ana2oaZqeNSdhdU
@eeeealmo2 ай бұрын
these techniques should work on any variety of elm right?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Yes - although i'm most familiar with Chinese elm, cork elm and Texas Cedar Elm. Seiju may or may not work - I imagine it would. As for other species - as long as they are equally vigorous I'd say it'll work.
@garymccarthy49942 ай бұрын
Looks like you're using BioGold as your fertilizer. Is that correct? Any other organic fertilizer you use along with the BioGold?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Rarely fish emulsion. I use a dilute mineral fertilizer like DynaGro also.
@JaniLaaksonen912 ай бұрын
How long did it take you, or would take without filming, going through the tree?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Well, it's a pretty small tree. I'd say about 30 minutes each time, maybe up to an hour toward the end.
@JaniLaaksonen912 ай бұрын
Ok, thanks. Around what I thought. The magic of editing made it look quicker😅😂
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Lol, I don't think anyone would watch these videos if they were 4-6 hours long, like the amount of work that's sometimes depicted!
@JaniLaaksonen912 ай бұрын
Haha, of course not. I've acquired the attention span of a toddler myself. I'm fairly new to this hobby (2 years) and I don't yet have many trees in ramification stage so I'm just gauging how long different things take time.
@robmartelli2 ай бұрын
INSANE😃
@최창호-q2o2 ай бұрын
안녕하세요,나는대한민국에서분재나무을만들고있습니다,영상을잘보았습니다,감사합니다😊🤗👏👏👏👍
@jacobcarreno74082 ай бұрын
Muy bueno
@stephencreswell2292 ай бұрын
Have you tried this on Korean Hornbeam?
@Bonsaify2 ай бұрын
Yes - see the end of the video....
@stephencreswell2292 ай бұрын
@@Bonsaify I commented before the video was finished.
@DavidBrumley2 ай бұрын
What about ficus?
@healthwealthphysio4902 ай бұрын
Wow wonderful Bonsai video ❤❤❤😮😮😮😊😊😊 what is the name of this plant 🤔🤔🤔