Interesting yamadori elm

[Dutch bonsai chef]

I acquired this elm from Teunis Jan Klein last winter, it was collected by a friend of him sometime last year from the side of a ditch.
I wired it last spring (pic 1) but didn’t take the wire off in time so I decided to cut all the growth that had been bitten in off about 1,5-2 months ago. I just gave it another cutback yesterday in the hopes of getting backbudding to create a new branching structure. I added a very bad drawing of my idea with the tree. I want to compact it, use the back trunk as kind of a back branch with trunk continuation and keep the deadwood, very much inspired bij Sergio’s maple from Randy Knight.

The deadwood however is rotting away of a very fast rate, would just using lime sulfur help or would I be looking at something like a wood hardener? The deadwood obviously needs to me carved but I’m reluctant to do it because one it’s gone I can’t replace it.

What would be your advise with the tree? What would be the next steps? Planning to repot it coming spring into a growbox with akadama for better drainage. All advice and inputs regarding design or maintenance are welcome elm

 

[Shibui]

Elm wood is relatively soft and rots easily so it will be difficult to retain the dead wood long term.
Lime sulphur will help slow deterioration but does not seem to totally stop the wood rotting. How long you can get depends how far the wood is already rotted and it sounds like it is already pretty far gone.
I haven't tried wood hardener on deciduous dead wood so can't tell you if it is better or not, but will definitely be better than no treatment.

Without seeing the tree close up I suspect I would be designing toward having a hollow trunk rather than the current dead wood. It will end up there anyway so might as well get on with it. IMHO

 

[oranjeaap]

If it behaves anything like my native Ulmus glabra (Ruwe iep) you'll have no shortage of backbudding. Granted, mine are still in the ground but damn they are nuts. Yours might be same species or maybe some hybrid like "x hollandica" judging from leaf size. So I'm expecting it to behave similarly.
I'm airlayering one and trunk chopped another. Was staring at bare trunks praying to get atleast 1 good bud to form a new leader. Few weeks later I had more branches than I knew what to do with.

As for the rotting wood I think it's opinions more than facts. Some people go all out with carving, cement, epoxy etc. Some just say "let it happen, a healthy tree can handle itself".
If it's a tree of no particular value or sentiment I'd be inclined towards just letting nature run it's course, especially with vigorous species like some Elms.

 

[Adamski77]

I have chinese elm (picture) with half a trunk being dead wood... the way I maintain it (quite successfully so far) is applying "super glue" or what they call it here in China 502. Probably is going to help for several years but nothing is forever. As Shibui mentioned they are soft and rot fast... where super glue helps is that water doesn't penetrate the wood so it stays dry vs. just deadwood with nothing on it.

 

[BobbyLane]

Ive heard Will baddely say he uses Ronseal wet rot wood hardener on this one over the years.

With the heat we're getting globally, Elms will have no problem being pushed back a bit to induce back budding.

 

[Dutch bonsai chef]

Yes a nice carved out hollow trunk was the plan where I wanted to go in the future. I was thinking of taking the deadwood to the left as well to make it look like 1 piece instead of 1 deadwood fat trunk and 1 seperate one. Judging by you guys responses I will be looking for something to preserve it.

As for the styling goes; I was planning to just let it run for the remainder of the season and come back after leafdrop for branch selection and wiring. I’m struggling a bit with what to to when and seeing the future with deciduous trees. I was thinking of purchasing the bonsai empire developing deciduous course, does anyone have experience with this course? Or might the intermediate course be better?