Oops!

I was just bragging to my wife this morning about how my Zelkova sinica was beginning to turn into a real tree. It's about 6 ft tall, though trunk is still pretty skinny. I planted it 10 years ago, so it hasn't exactly been growing gangbusters. But it looked completely happy this morning.
Alas, I was promptly punished for my bragging. Now that it is gaining some height, it's at prime risk for deer antler rubbing which has girdled many of my other young trees in the past. So I was placing some plastic wire netting around the trunk to protect it. In the process, the trunked snapped off at the ground level. Completely snapped off!
The decapitated trunk is now sitting in a bucket of water in my garage. I'm heartbroken. The whole value of this tree is it's bark character at maturity. Lets just say, even if it resprouts, or if I can get a cutting to survive, I won't live long enough to see it at maturity.
I presume it couldn't have really been healthy for it to have been so brittle. Honestly, I didn't put much force on it at all. Maybe it will resprout, I don't know.
At any rate, any suggestions for rooting cuttings in July? I've never done mid-summer cuttings from a Zelkova. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Here's a picture of my poor tree in the bucket.

This message was edited Jul 3, 2010 2:38 PM

Here's the foliage - looks pretty happy.

But what's up with the trunk - is it diseased?
It split at a tangential angle, not straight across.

Meanwhile, I'll try to root some cuttings.
Any advice for me?

Well, here's my attempt at rooting hardwood cuttings.
I tried 5. Used rooting hormone w/ fungicide.
Put them in a moist soil-less mix.
The rest of the tree is still sitting in a bucket of water,
in case anyone can tell me how I should have done it.
There may still be time to try a different method.

Just hazarding some guesses, tinged with experience....

Your picture of the break shows a discontinuous connection between your trunk-in-a-bucket and the remainder - which you haven't shown.

Tell us where you got this plant and what condition it was in. In addition, take pictures of the remaining base of the plant in the ground. You also could hydro-excavate around this, to show what the trunk base/basal flare/root crown looks like in place. Then put the soil (or refreshed soil) back, if you intend to see if it is going to resprout.

MEANWHILE - my intuition only based on your text (10 year old tree six feet tall) and images:

This was originally a grafted/budded plant that never "knitted" or "took". Yes, it was alive, as evidenced by green foliage every year. Yet, it had so little growth for a shade tree size species, and the sudden snap-off at the base (where a graft or budding propagation regime would have occurred) tells me that you only had a small union between scion and rootstock, but never a complete working circumference of cambial tissue.

Girdling roots were one assumption that I've dismissed. The trunk break picture doesn't look like it had been "strangled".

Another slim possibility is that you've had regular nibbling by some low-profile rodent, which created a weak trunk attachment that was desperately trying to callous over till you leaned on it. I suspect you would have noticed something "afoot" before now, though.

Like a great director, you've left us wanting more...

Here's what I know...
I bought it from Arborvillage Nursery in Holt, MO in 2001.
It was a 1 gal size tree. I didn't think it was grafted, but I can't swear to it.
The area it's planted in has become too shady over the years.
I attributed it's slow growth to suboptimal conditions.
Other than growing slowly, it has appeared healthy.

Here's a shot of the remaining stump in the ground.

More of an en face view.

As far as rooting the hardwood cuttings, I followed instructions from what I got off the web.
But they recommend enclosing the entire potted cutting in a closed plastic bag,]
checking every week or two for roots.
I can't imagine doing that in our climate - surely it would cook?
Any suggestions for handling the cuttings this time of year, now that they're potted up?

Do the plastic bag thing - that is to keep high humidity around the leaf surfaces to retard too much moisture loss due to transpiration, since you have NO roots from which to draw moisture into the cutting. Just don't put this in full sun. Use a north window (if indoors) or north side of a structure (if outdoors) so that you don't have a bake-off. Of course, if you have a climate controlled greenhouse in which to propagate, then that'll be peachy too.

Sometimes people use something like a pop bottle with a screw off top - kind of like a regulator.

Lanny from Arborvillage (I think they are now closed?) has always been a class act; I'd respect his materials but that doesn't mean that there couldn't have been a problem here or there. Suboptimal conditions can be a factor, but Zelkova is essentially an Asian elm - they usually don't have too many issues to just growing.

Your stump images could still represent a grafting problem or something damaging the basal area (like rodent nibbling). It'd still be interesting to see what is below grade down to where the roots flare.