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Hi, I'm sure this question has been asked and answered many times but after an hour of searching I cannot find a past thread.

I have a Chinese Elm that I have been growing in a large pot for about 5 years, I think its time to cut it back and possibly carry out a trunk chop. I need to know what time of year to do this. I've read so many conflicting answers to this question and I don't want to cause my tree any damage or possibly kill it.
with my little knowledge of how deciduous trees grow, I would imagine that the best time of year is late winter but I would really like some advice from people that have done this before.

Can someone help?

Rob

Depends on what your aim is.

Fast growth you will get if you do this before budswelling. HOwever, this results in large internodes.
Slower growth you get if you do it after the spring growth slows down. You get slow recovery. But also short internodes.

I have a slight preference for late spring (But well before summer equinox!)

Hi thanks for your reply, my aim is to get some trunk taper. I'm not too bothered about fast growth.

Rob.13 wrote: my aim is to get some trunk taper. I'm not too bothered about fast growth.

That's a contradiction...

To get a decent trunk, you need growth.

I said I'm not too bothered about FAST growth, obviously I want growth. I asked for help not smug comments

Rob.13 wrote: I said I'm not too bothered about FAST growth, obviously I want growth. I asked for help not smug comments

Ah, let me rephrase that:
To get tapering and to get the trunk to heal after the trunk chop, you need A LOT OF growth.

Had to look that up, by the way.
"having or showing an excessive pride in oneself or one's achievements"

Nah... I never show an excessive pride in my bonsai achievements.

Thanks for your reply Auk. I was a bit hasty in my reply to your previous post and should have asked you to expand on your comment rather than calling you smug. thanks for explaining what you meant about fast growth, so you think it will be best to chop the trunk just before the buds start to come out, so that would be the very end of winter, beginning of spring?

In theory it will be best to chop late winter/early spring when there is no risk for frost, and prior to bud swelling.
It is important with no frost especially if the tree is placed outside, since trees in general is storing the sugars in the trunk, branches etc, which translates into cold-tolerance. By removing branches in the height of winter, your will be lowering the cold tolerance of the tree, and you will risk it dying, if the temperature gets too low.
Chopping prior to bud swell because the tree uses its sugar storage to push the buds - if you do later, the tree would have spent the energy pushing those buds, which you will then cutoff before it gets its investments back, and the tree will be in energy negative for the rest of the year.

Thank you, very good explanation. Our seasons can be unpredictable, we can have 70 degrees in March and then the next day it could snow. I will take your advice on board and make the chop in late March, but I will keep an eye on it to make sure I do it before the buds have swelled. If I miss it I'll do it next year..

You can also do it when the tree has regained the investment it has put into bud/leaf production - that is when the growth slows down mid to end June. Many people defoliates at this time, so it might be ok to do it there, if you miss the chance early spring.