Chinese elm trunk chop

[crab apple]

I chopped this chinese elm at just the right time this spring and repotted it with very little root reduction. It grew a huge canopy last summer but I was a little disappointed in the trunk growth. Anyways the top went out to the sides and all over the place and was so unruly I decided to do a trunk chop and start over but as you can see no buds popped up high, might some still pop up higher later? or is this probably all I'm going to get? I cut it about where I wanted it, it would suk to have to chop it that low.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

If it’s alive at the cut, most likely it will produce a bunch of buds at the exposed cambium. If not, the dead portions of the trunk will take on an orange hue when wet.

 

[crab apple]

Thanks for the reply, it was certainly alive when I cut it and the buds were just starting to swell, It seems like its been about a month or at least 3 weeks. The elms start up before anything else around here

 

[Maiden69]

Maybe you chopped a little too late and all the energy from the roots was already on the way up the trunk. That and a heavy root reduction will leave you with a slow response from the tree. My elms respond the same way when I prune the roots hard, the initial push in spring is slow, the next year they explode.

 

[Cajunrider]

I chopped this chinese elm at just the right time this spring and repotted it with very little root reduction. It grew a huge canopy last summer but I was a little disappointed in the trunk growth. Anyways the top went out to the sides and all over the place and was so unruly I decided to do a trunk chop and start over but as you can see no buds popped up high, might some still pop up higher later? or is this probably all I'm going to get? I cut it about where I wanted it, it would suk to have to chop it that low.View attachment 478047

It is likely that it will bud higher a little later. Your tree has been through a hard chop. Let it recover first. By the way, did the huge canopy last year come after another chop? If so I would not recommend any more chop. We cannot build the trunk if we keep chopping away the means to collect energy and grow.