growing Chinese Elm in the ground?

[linlaoboo]

I wanted to thicken up my Chinese Elm alot, it's barely 1/2" thick at the base and I'm wondering if it will be ok to drop it in a garden grow bed with mulch over the winter? It had no problem growing alot in my grow box since Spring but I'm moving to a place with a yard. It has been over-wintered in its pot in a storage shed for the past 2 winters during durmancy so I need to decide if it'll go in the ground or I need to go back to the potted way. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dav4]

Putting it in the ground is fine, but it will take more then a winter in the ground to thicken the trunk. I would guess a minimum of three years ground growing would be necessary to see the benefits. I'm a big fan of working the roots prior to planting stock out to grow, so early spring would be best for that.

 

[Sekibonsai]

There's little to be gained between now and next Spring in NJ climate... It needs a year to establish roots and all that and then it will take off so until you are in a position to leave it for a year or three I'd just stick with free growth in a decently roomy pot.

 

[linlaoboo]

Thanks for answering my question. I wasn't exactly sure my zone is ok for ground growing for this species. When I threw it in my 3ft x 3ft wooden grow box along with other trees this Spring I had already worked the roots out so I don't think it's going to be too much of a shock for me to dig it out and drop it in a real grow bed in my yard. The thing of it is I have to yank it out anyways along with all other starter trees since I'm moving and the wooden grow box will be demolished.

 

[Poink88]

You know your timeline so you decide.

Note that frequent disturbing the roots of the tree by transplanting or repotting won't help you attain the trunk thickening you are after. Each re-pot or transplant sets your tree back so you might not gain anything and can actually lose if you do it frequent.

 

[Dav4]

Most are hardy to usda zone 6...I planted some C. elm starters (Hokkaido and Seigu) in my yard in MA years ago and they did fine with the winter cold.

edit: The species Ulmus parviflora is cold hardy to zone 5...I believe some of the dwarf varieties may be more cold sensitive.

 

[cmeg1]

I grew seedling chinese elm in the ground.I will never do it again cause when I chopped the 12" long tap root,they got extreme black spot on leaves.I think a big tap root would form on pencil seedlings,maybe you should grow on a tile.

 

[Tieball]

In the ground over winter

Most are hardy to usda zone 6...I planted some C. elm starters (Hokkaido and Seigu) in my yard in MA years ago and they did fine with the winter cold.

edit: The species Ulmus parviflora is cold hardy to zone 5...I believe some of the dwarf varieties may be more cold sensitive.

My Chinese Elms are in the ground with a cold Michigan winter time. I use loads of pine needles piled up around the trees from my yard evergreen shedding. I also have the trees individually circled with a wire fence to keep the deer and rabbits from the bufet of bark. It works. I wrap the "cage" with a nylon fence fabric leftover. It's similar to ground erosion fence on stakes you buy at a Home Depot or Lowes...I wrap the cage up to above the tree height (the cage fencing is 36"). Works very well. The trees do well every winter...my temps are 32 F to around -10 F with most of the winter hovering aroound 15-19 degrees. The fabric wind break is because I have significant wind chills that can be steady at -10 degrees to -25 for days. Yeah...it's cold.

 

[linlaoboo]

well, I transplanted it to the new place I moved to. Not sure if it doesn't like the full sun now or the new soil although I did bring along alot of its original soil from the previous place. Most leaves went brown on me after a heavy rain strom. It's not looking promising unless it recovers itself.

know what u mean by deers. All they do is eat and poop all day. For that reason I didn't put my maple seedlings in the ground cuz they'll just eat them up. Is there anything they won't eat? I don't have any fancing to keep them out which is part of problem too.