Siberian elm urban yamadori #2

Siberian Elm - Urban Yamadori  #2

Above is the site.  There were plenty to choose from, yet some were really close to the fence and one was a trunk gut almost to the ground that had responded well, but was 12" in diameter and beyond my scope...I'm glad I passed on it.

Below, you can see why I choose this one to dig up, with one funky zig-zag branch which I planned on being the leader. The vertical growing branch in the back of the image was later pruned due to it crossing around the branch with the interesting movement.

Smooth progress

In the image below, you can see that crossing branch as well as a bunch of messy growth on the left side.  Not many roots to speak of, hopefully it will respond to nice soil, well sealed cuts, and TLC.

Here it is a bit cleaned up.  I didn't worry too much about the knobby and large cuts.  I image that they will become Uro, or hollows in the near future.

I cleaned them up just a bit more, and considered my next move.  There is a lot of potential with this tree but the inverse taper is a significant issue.  The roots were in the lower part of the root structure so I felt that I had to plant it as is.

I have never tried the tourniquet method to correct this type of issue, and thought that I would give it a go.  Basically, the idea is to tightly bind wire around the trunk at the thickest part.  When the tree grows, it will grow into the wire.  The cambium will be affected and the tree will respond by throwing out roots just above the tourniquet.  Then when these roots are established, the old lower roots can be cut.  Below is the placement of the wire. 

I potted it deep so that there was room above the tourniquet for the new roots to develop...hopefully!

This tree could be interesting.  It should stay put for long enough for the tourniquet to take effect and development new radial roots.  I plan on letting it grow unchecked with perhaps a few winter cuts to keep it in shape.

Update:  Here it is with some nice buds on the upper trunk and some suckers on the bottom, which I will cut once the top puts out more shoots. June 2018

Update:  September, 2018 this is the only survivor of that dig.  The large wounds on the upper trunk healed well and the tree grew vigorously, sending up strong leader.  I thinned out some excessive growth an trimmed the leader a bit.