hello my name is Linda Phillips I'm the director of an educational and
environmental charity called Roots & Shoots and we've been part of the London
Elm experiment and Ulmus Londinium okay today we're going to talk about the care
of the young sapling Elms that you'll you will receive them we're in a pot
they would have been staked and now you just need to prepare them ready for
their autumn planting so just a very light pruning is required and a bit of
extra staking just to get them ready for this the ideal time to prune of course
is the winter time when the plant is dormant but if you do it just very
lightly during the summer time that's fine as well the reason why you should
likely prune is to enable for any lower side shoots take away the food from the
main stem developing the stem and you really need to take these off and for
the plant focuses its strength in developing the main stem and if in some
times the top leader shoot has actually died out or being cut
you need to reinstate that by tying in a strong sheet upward and that will ensure
the tree becomes quite a stable shape if you have received an elm that is very
bushy then you need to actually establish a leader and you can do this
by using a stake tying it in and finding the strongest shoots then that can in
fact become the leader what I'm doing here is I'm cutting off very close to
the main stem cutting off this excess
it's like that and as you can see from the top of this elm here it's a very top
leader has died out so what I'm doing is I'm looking to find a strong shoot that
could really become the new leader so I'm going to just cut this shoot out here
and then I'm going to tie it up here and that becomes the new leader and it would
become nice and strong by the end of the summer when you're looking to prune your
elm and you're not terribly sure which shoots to actually remove always just to
remove the really strong vigorous ones down at the base these young ones here
you can leave quite safely that's absolutely fine and then that will focus
the growth on developing the strong stem and the leader from here I've removed
the weak shoot and the next shoot down is much stronger so I'm going to make
that into the new leader so I've attached a strong twine onto the
stem behind and I'm just going to tie this on and that will become the new
leader by the end of the summer
and I just do that not too tightly I might add it's just to guide it
when planting the young elm in the autumn time it's very important to prepare a
good sized planting pit with plenty of room either side plant it centrally with
a stake preferably and always make sure it's well firmed in and always water it
in and then mulch with an organic mulch and the organic mulch really does help
hit fight any pests and disease I do hope you found my helpful hints useful
and you will look after your elm for future generations and always remember
to if you've got a problem with rabbits or deer this young elm may need a tree
guard apart from that good luck with your help
and I'm sure we'll do well.