$12 Chinese elm suggestions

[dbonsaiw]

I’ve heard this too but I don’t want to be that guy that kills this little elm as soon as I get it lol. Can anyone confirm this?

Lol. Same boat. I got a cool little elm and wasnt going to repot as it’s fully in leaf. Seems it may be ok.

 

[19Mateo83]

In my warmer climate Chinese elms do not always lose leaves in winter. Waiting for leaves to drop before repotting is futile. We've adapted to repotting even if they have leaves and no problem. I still repot in spring, usually before new growth starts because that's convenient and I feel safer.
Growers further north from me (warmer and into tropical zones) tell me that Chinese elm never lose leaves there and rarely stop growing. They also got frustrated with waiting for dormancy and tried repotting even if there's new shoots - no problem there either.
Take home for me is that Chinese elm does not care when it is root pruned and will survive even when root pruned when growing.

From the photos it appears this Chinese elm is dormant, even though there are still leaves. I'd have no problem repotting now in your early spring.

Nice! Thank you for the info.

 

[Joe_B]

I did a fun experiment over the winter where as a complete noob decided to try his luck with leaving these outside all winter, not really knowing what the hell I was doing. Well one made it, the other didn't. Funny enough the rough bark Chinese Elm was the one that pulled through (I'm definitely okay with this). Next year I'll have to provide more protection during freezing temps and snow. Now this is by no means a controlled experiment where I can say that rough bark variety is more cold tolerant, but it SEEMED to be the case here. Both were on same watering schedule, location, and pot types. Either way, I love Chinese elms and they are some of the most forgiving and hardy trees, just maybe don't leave them in sub freezing temps.

left mine outside all winter in this quickly made foam box. They all survived quite well in temps down to 0.