Hi all!
One of the few trees that will grow unbidden in our area are Siberian elms, the much-reviled asian introduction into the Southwestern United States. As someone who's generally a fan of making use of volunteers and eager to learn to graft, does anyone know of any species that siberian elm might serve as a useful rootstock for? Perhaps a Lacebark or American elm?
My only experience with Siberian Elms has been negative unfortunately. I tried to glean a few papers from google to see if anyone has tried this with any success and don't seem to be finding anyone attempting it?
Another forum had someone try to attach apricot via grafting but it failed.
I think this might be an excellent opportunity for you to try.
My first worry, is my main complaint with the tree, that once you nick it they tend to weep and get bacterial infections that inevitably kill the tree. I had a stand of 8 where 6 of them have suffered this fate. I have three more to knock down when I get a chance. The good news is that the chips are gobbled up aggressively by mycelium.
They are used as rootstock for some hybrid cultivars like emerald sunshine. I think Chinese Elms are also known to be compatible, possibly all ulmus.
Seems like a great thing to do with the otherwise unwanted sprouts. It would be a really fun experiment. One downside I noticed is that they do tend to sucker up from the roots pretty strongly as you can imagine. You'd just need to stay on top of it.
Tell me how it all turns out. Here is a tiny ad:
Gracie's backyard - a film about permaculture farming in the far north with Richard Perkins (stream)