Seiju Chinese Elm - (Pre-Bonsai)

[@OddBonsai]

Those small leaves are awesome! I'm glad you managed to bring it back to life in the end. I hope it gets healthy soon so it can start it's bonsai training.

[@BonsaiBoise]

Thanks! I was relieved, it would've been a shame to lose it so quickly. I never see them for sale either so who knows when I could get another one.

[@BlueJayBonsai]

Yay! You saved the little guy. Now he can renew his gym membership and get in some squats. Bros don’t let bros skip leg day! 🤣 Love my little Chinese elm (non seiju). I know you’ll have fun once yours fully recovers. Very conflicting info out there - totally agree. Mine’s under the grow lights as well.. but apparently may burn out early because of it.. oh well, enjoy it while it lasts. 🤷🏻

[@BonsaiBoise]

Thanks Jay! I'll post updates on this one as it comes along. At least then we can all learn from my trial and errors, (especially the errors), and maybe then we'll have a baseline for reliable info. I was really surprised at how wide the variance was in information on this. Some said it's safe down to -10, some said not below +40. Some called it lace bark, other's cork bark. So it wasn't little subtle differences, it was completely opposite extremes. Darn interwebs. 🤠

[@bobmccarlie382]

I have a seiju that came from iseli nurseries, the same as yours did. I’ve had it for 4 winters now. It has survived temps as low as -10C in my unseated garage. The past 2 falls it turned a beautiful gold before the leaves fell. While it survived -10C, I think it is best kept above -5C. This winter it’s in a temperature controlled grow tent in my garage that will keep the temperature at 1C or above. It’s already lost it’s leaves and is sleeping peacefully. I agree your problem was too much moisture retention.

[@jc-wx3sm]

lol at skipping leg day. I'm brand new to this, but my few chinese elm seedlings seemed to love greenhouse humidity after the leaves started drooping. Bounced back really quick.

[@BonsaiBoise]

I'm glad someone got that! 🤣 seriously, I couldn't create reverse taper like that if I tried.

[@Tybold63]

Useful info on what to do and what not to do which is equally important. Have ordered some seeds of chinese elm so if I am lucky I too will have one of my own. Am truly happy you seemed to saved that little bastard lol. Eventually the inversed taper could grow off but be interesting to see how you tackle it, cheers!

[@BonsaiBoise]

Out of nowhere, it ended up dying anyways! It looked like it was bouncing back and then one day it just gave up.

[@Tybold63]

@@BonsaiBoise oh that was sad, but better luck next time as I think it worth trying those trees out.

[@Tybold63]

Update spring 2024 - have two tiny trees now from seed and it seems they doing OK and will gamble with one of them and see if i can get it to overwinter coming winter while I keep the other inside a year or more but now it is soon time to place them outside. 😊

[@casvanmarcel]

It probably looks bad but I'm sure you can make it the most prettiest tree in time. Stay awesome and thanks for posting!

[@BonsaiBoise]

Thank you! I appreciate that, I'm hoping someday this thing will look good 🌳