Epos7
Yamadori
My parents have a really big elm tree in their yard, and when I started to get the bonsai itch earlier this year, I decided to take a couple air layers from it.
I placed two air layers on smallish branches I could reach with a ladder on April 22, 2025.
ELM1:
Some arborists doing work on the tree accidentally removed one in July, and I didn't get to it for a few days, by which point the roots were pretty dry. I placed it in a humidity bucket for a few weeks, and it bounced back with some new root and bud growth. On August 6, 2025, I planted it in one of the cedar flats I made earlier this year. The arborists forced my hand on how to prune it. For substrate, I used a mix of 50% medium grain Triple Red akadama, 25% bonsai block, 25% mondo clay.
Here it is today:
ELM2:
Luckily, the arborists left my second air layer alone. I removed it yesterday, August 22, 2025. It was very rootbound, and I had to remove quite a few roots just to free things up. I think I was able to leave enough such that it will survive. We'll see. I planted it in one of my cedar flats with the same substrate mix as the first. I pruned it back into what my novice eyes thought a good starting shape, and put some cut paste on the wounds. I think I'll need to grow a sacrifice branch lower down the trunk to try to fatten that section up a bit and improve the taper.
I placed two air layers on smallish branches I could reach with a ladder on April 22, 2025.
ELM1:
Some arborists doing work on the tree accidentally removed one in July, and I didn't get to it for a few days, by which point the roots were pretty dry. I placed it in a humidity bucket for a few weeks, and it bounced back with some new root and bud growth. On August 6, 2025, I planted it in one of the cedar flats I made earlier this year. The arborists forced my hand on how to prune it. For substrate, I used a mix of 50% medium grain Triple Red akadama, 25% bonsai block, 25% mondo clay.
Here it is today:
ELM2:
Luckily, the arborists left my second air layer alone. I removed it yesterday, August 22, 2025. It was very rootbound, and I had to remove quite a few roots just to free things up. I think I was able to leave enough such that it will survive. We'll see. I planted it in one of my cedar flats with the same substrate mix as the first. I pruned it back into what my novice eyes thought a good starting shape, and put some cut paste on the wounds. I think I'll need to grow a sacrifice branch lower down the trunk to try to fatten that section up a bit and improve the taper.
