Help Scott pick his keeper

[ColinFraser]

Tree #4, 1 year from collection.

What do I win?! Haha
Looks like it's going strong.

 

[markyscott]

Time to get these guys into the system. Tree #2 is one of the keepers. But I decided I liked it better with two trunks then three. I shortened it and eliminated one of the trunks over the winter. Here's the tree from several angles this morning- the spring push has hardened off and the tree is ready to work. First pic is close to the front.

 

[markyscott]

You know the drill. Prune downward facing growth. Thin to two branches at each node.


Pull off old leaves close to the trunk on strongly extending shoots.


But leave the weak interior growth alone.

 

[markyscott]

Then wire up all the seasonal growth and cut the new shoots back. Don't cut into last years wood unless there's a new shoot to cut back to. Keep more leaves on the lower branches and fewer on the upper branches. Keep the lower branches longer and the upper ones shorter.

After the work.


I like this species and can tell that it will develop quickly. Got to watch the big branch removal though. Seems to callous reluctantly.

 

[Zach Smith]

It would be doubly good as he was on the collection trip with me. He wrote a blog post about fall Water elm collection about that trip, in fact. I've bought trees from him before, but it was the first time I met him. Great guy, but he had to leave before the after collection beverage. I guess he doesn't get as thirsty as us mortals.

Scott

I just saw this thread. Didn't mean to not chime in. All good trees. Love 2, 4, 5 and 6. Probably 2 the best.

Nobody told me they were serving booze after

 

[markyscott]

I just saw this thread. Didn't mean to not chime in. All good trees. Love 2, 4, 5 and 6. Probably 2 the best.

Nobody told me they were serving booze after

Thanks Zach. Glad you liked #2 - I think it was my favorite as well, but it was fun to crowdsource the keeper. I collected that on the trip you and I went on together 1 1/2 years ago. I hadn't worked on a water elm before, but I can see why you like them - they're strong and they develop very quickly.

But I'm surprised that an experienced guy like you somehow missed the after-collecting boozing?

Scott

 

[cmeg1]

Looks great man.Will definitely have to look at this thread with my future Elms to remember the branch technique.Thanks for the great documentation!

 

[Adair M]

Thanks Zach. Glad you liked #2 - I think it was my favorite as well, but it was fun to crowdsource the keeper. I collected that on the trip you and I went on together 1 1/2 years ago. I hadn't worked on a water elm before, but I can see why you like them - they're strong and they develop very quickly.

But I'm surprised that an experienced guy like you somehow missed the after-collecting boozing?

Scott

Why wait until after? What about before and during?

"How many Shiners did it take to dig this tree up?"

"How many Shiners did it take to find this tree?"

"How many Shiners will it take to kill the pain in my back from digging this tree up?"

"How many Shiners will it take to kill the pain in my head that I incurred when I fell down after drinking too many Shiners?"

 

[Zach Smith]

Thanks Zach. Glad you liked #2 - I think it was my favorite as well, but it was fun to crowdsource the keeper. I collected that on the trip you and I went on together 1 1/2 years ago. I hadn't worked on a water elm before, but I can see why you like them - they're strong and they develop very quickly.

But I'm surprised that an experienced guy like you somehow missed the after-collecting boozing?

Scott

Heh. I usually wait until some trees get killed off during a freak cold spell to do that. I clearly don't have my priorities straight.

On a serious note, water-elms can be touchy and do not like temps below about 25F. I'd protect below 30 to be on the safe side. They love summer, meaning heat and sunshine as you probably know. Vigor is very good, they ramify without any special care or techniques besides pruning and pinching, and you can build a showable tree in three years from a bare trunk. As you've noted above, they don't heal large wounds very well.

Zach

 

[markyscott]

Why wait until after? What about before and during?

"How many Shiners did it take to dig this tree up?"

"How many Shiners did it take to find this tree?"

"How many Shiners will it take to kill the pain in my back from digging this tree up?"

"How many Shiners will it take to kill the pain in my head that I incurred when I fell down after drinking too many Shiners?"

Now you're being silly Adair. Everyone knows that Shiners are drank during Texas collection trips. This was very clearly collected in Louisiana.

 

[Adair M]

Now you're being silly Adair. Everyone knows that Shiners are drank during Texas collection trips. This was very clearly collected in Louisiana.

Well... there ya go!! Us Rednecks don't follow dem rules like you starched blue jeans do. We'll drink our PBR anywhere!

 

[Adair M]

By the way, Scott, you'd appreciate this...

A friend of mine called asking if he could borrow some pumice from me until he could buy a bag, and we got to talking about pumice and scoria and such...
When during a pause in the conversation, my daughter, who took that geology field trip with UGA last summer, says, "You know I'm fact checking you!"

Lol!!!

 

[VAFisher]

This looks like it will be a really neat tree. I have one of Zach's Water Elms and I agree that they are great to work with. Since they don't grow up here, and I wanted more, I took a bunch of cuttings from mine last year during a trimming session with close to 100% success. So, they're really easy to propagate too.

I'm looking forward to seeing the continued development on this one.

 

[barrosinc]

I just realized that these are not related to elms at all!
I really like the one you chose and how it is developing.

 

[markyscott]

This looks like it will be a really neat tree. I have one of Zach's Water Elms and I agree that they are great to work with. Since they don't grow up here, and I wanted more, I took a bunch of cuttings from mine last year during a trimming session with close to 100% success. So, they're really easy to propagate too.

I'm looking forward to seeing the continued development on this one.

Johng once shared a picture of a grove he made from Water Elm saplings - it looked really good. Perhaps he'll post it again here - it was clear that the species is a very good candidate for forest plantings. Maybe thats something you can consider using the cuttings you struck for.

 

[markyscott]

I just realized that these are not related to elms at all!
I really like the one you chose and how it is developing.

It's a genus with a single species: Planera aquatica. It's in the family Ulmaceae, so closely related to elms and apparently susceptible to Dutch elm disease. It's native range extends up the Mississippi valley from Louisiana to southern Illinois and along the eastern seaboard from southern Georgia to southern North Carolina.



In my area, fall colors were rust-red and it held onto its leaves until quite late in the season when I gave up and pulled them all off in early January. It was pushing new growth 6 weeks later. We had one cold snap over the winter where nighttime lows got down into the upper 20s. They stayed out without protection through the freeze. Daytime highs were in the mid-30s and the cold snap only lasted a few days. So they're hardy enough to stand Houston winters (but so are Schefflera, so that's not saying much).

 

[VAFisher]

Johng once shared a picture of a grove he made from Water Elm saplings - it looked really good. Perhaps he'll post it again here - it was clear that the species is a very good candidate for forest plantings. Maybe thats something you can consider using the cuttings you struck for.

I've seen at least 2 different ones that he's done and they do look awesome. My cuttings are years away from even that and it will be slow since I can't plant them in the ground. I might get impatient and try some mini forests since the leaves seem to reduce pretty well.

 

[VAFisher]

It's a genus with a single species: Planera aquatica. It's in the family Ulmaceae, so closely related to elms and apparently susceptible to Dutch elm disease. It's native range extends up the Mississippi valley from Louisiana to southern Illinois and along the eastern seaboard from southern Georgia to southern North Carolina.

View attachment 143883

In my area, fall colors were rust-red and it held onto its leaves until quite late in the season when I gave up and pulled them all off in early January. It was pushing new growth 6 weeks later. We had one cold snap over the winter where nighttime lows got down into the upper 20s. They stayed out without protection through the freeze. Daytime highs were in the mid-30s and the cold snap only lasted a few days. So they're hardy enough to stand Houston winters (but so are Schefflera, so that's not saying much).

I let mine see light frost about 3 times never getting below about 28 and then only for short periods. Once it was dormant it went into the garage where it didn't get below about 40. That seemed to work pretty well.

 

[markyscott]

I let mine see light frost about 3 times never getting below about 28 and then only for short periods. Once it was dormant it went into the garage where it didn't get below about 40. That seemed to work pretty well.

Lol! Frost? What's frost? Those three days were all the winter we had! No temps below 50 the rest of the season. Most of the winter we had highs in the 70s!

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Second go at them this season. This time I'm going to do a bit of a trunk correction.

This tree



Is the subject. One thing thats always bothered me is the straight secondary trunk - I 'd like it to follow the line of the main trunk a bit more. Here's a closeup:



Scott