For an Elegant Elm Bonsai, You Must Do This!

"Intermediate steps are really important for creating a quality composition." Eric walks through middle development steps with a root-over-rock Chinese Cork Bark Elm. If you want to create a similar composition, we now have starters available for purchase (U.S. only): www.bonsaify.c....
00:00:46 Exploring potential fronts. Thinning out the shoots that grew from cut points helps determine which buds to keep.
00:02:03 How Eric selects buds to remove.
00:03:14 Eric decides which section of the trunk he wants to keep and identifies where he wants to top to begin.
00:05:03 Tips for wiring the remaining vigorous shoots.
00:06:14 Eric explains his wiring choices.
00:07:21 Ramification decision.
00:08:01 How Eric ensures he doesn't knock off the shoots while wiring.
00:09:01 Creating the crown. The tree will be larger than Shohin size.
00:09:43 Eric gets a little technical - botany!
00:10:11 Re-visiting the front of the composition and branch placements.
00:11:45 How Eric got such vigorous growth so early in the year (early March).
Do you agree with Eric's styling choices? What would you have done differently? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for watching! UPDATE: Eric continues to develop this Elm, with a touch of prediction and a lot of vision: • Bonsaify | Learn to PR... .

[@Bonsaify]

@ArkansasBikernet - We usually put a link to associated product in the description - which YT does a good job of hiding. Here is the link. www.bonsaify.com/products/chinese-corkbark-elm-bonsai-starters Thanks for being a Bonsaify customer. 😉

[@ronniebruce9624]

Lol anytime I take a huge trunk of tree off, my wife will close her eyes. I love it.

[@aaronleslie1581]

Lol you’ve convinced me I’m gonna have to buy one now!! Just got a juniper in the mail from you guys and I’m super happy with it!!!!

[@ArkansasBikernet]

Eric...you said you would be selling the cork bark elms, but I don't see them yet on your website. Do you have an idea when they will be available...Yep...gonna get me one (or two), or (three). Thanks for the great videos.

[@ArkansasBikernet]

Oops...never mind. I found them.

[@themichaellerner]

As usual, a nice, helpful video. Thanks again!

[@Justme0495]

Just finished repotting my Chinese Elm today :)

[@boxCatalogue]

11:36 "🤨Elm..." gave me a chuckle. Would you not consider leaving on the unactivated buds/unusable shoots that won't cause inverse taper, in order to increase health security and create a greater foliage mass to root mass ratio, thus hopefully reducing internode length and the likeliness of further adventitious budding in areas where it could cause inverse taper? Or is this not enough of a concern to bother?

[@Bonsaify]

Reading that made me go cross-eyed for a second. Leave it to you to pickle my brain. The work here is one part refinement and one part slowing down of the growth of the tree. I don't want it to be overly vigorous now that I'm into branch work - as you say - to reduce node length. However node length is not difficult to control on these elms so not a huge concern at this scale. In terms of leaving additional items to bleed off energy - I actually left one shoot unwired in the back - but more importantly, by not removing the tips I'm allowing all the branches to continue running. That will make them set faster, and bleed off excess energy. And to your chuckle - I'm actively trying to stop saying "Umm", so the result is a pause while the rusty gears in my brain turn. The salt and vinegar combination in pickling liquid makes that happen. 😜

[@boxCatalogue]

@@Bonsaify And to think I edited it after writing to make it more understandable... not a good sign for my thesis. Thanks for the explanation. Stay pickled 🤘

[@jonbivens4129]

I was recently given a root cutting turned starter piece of material, do you have a video on developing Chinese elm from root propagation ?

[@Bonsaify]

No. It's not much different, but there is a reverse taper issue that you'll need to overcome. Depending on the size of the root that was cut it can be easy or not so much.

[@williamsoroka2527]

BRAVO OHIO USA

[@rebelliousbrands3253]

Nice!

[@brucedeacon28]

👍👌🙂

[@conspiraterry7393]

Very interesting! Boy that one would be a nightmare to ship lol

[@savio3101]

👌🏻

[@ZidaneMusikBonsai]

Thank you sharing

[@questionablecooking7019]

Dayum, the hormone at the tip alpha some big info to know, thanks. The back root that hasn't adhered to the rock, will you try to compress it to get it to stick or has the ship sailed? Great vid, thanks.

[@Bonsaify]

That's a good point, it's still flexible so I should wrap it to try to get it to close the gap faster. I've been concerned because it's not growing as fast as the roots on the other side so was thinking I might need to leave it alone. When I did the repot, I cut the larger roots harder and tried to leave more feeder roots on that one.

[@nickaleshin7149]

Would you do this sort of shoot/bud selection and cutback if the tree was repotted that late winter?

[@Bonsaify]

Yes, in fact this one was repotted in late winter. But, I'd wait until the new growth looked like it does at the start of the video. The shoot growth is a good indicator of the roots doing well also.

[@nickaleshin7149]

@@Bonsaify 10-4 cap’n 🫡