After noticing that this 12-13 year old Zelkova (grown from seed) had gotten weak and had some twig dieback, Eric used a familiar trick to nurse it back to health.

He placed it in an Anderson flat, and sunk the pot all the way into the soil. This is similar to the process he uses to grow mame (Watch "One Mame Trick to Rule Them All" for more details    • Bonsaify | One Mame Trick to Rule The...  ). He then moved to tree to the greenhouse for the better part of a year.

Since the move, Eric has cut the roots that have grown over the rim of the bonsai pot several times. He does this so that the tree continues to rely on the roots established in the bonsai pot to some extent.

1:39 After noticing twig dieback, Eric wanted to give the tree more "juice" in terms of climate. He will remove the twigs that have died and reshape the crown when he can see it better (in early winter, after the leaves drop).

2:22 One concern with this approach is to not let the shoots run too much because the branches will get too big.

We'll shoot a follow-up video on this tree in a few months so you can see how Eric reshapes the crown!

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Music by Bensound.com