Klavier: I just confirmed to myself that in fact the University of Minnesota Dept. of Horticultural Science (Chad P. Giblin), have in fact been performing screening of american elms. A magnificent specimen American elm that has been observed to be surviving a crown fire of ded for the past 35 or so years is now in the process of being cloned there. I read that part of their research involves grafting the St. Croix onto Valley Forge rootstock. I'm sure he would be more than glad to share with you some of their research as well.

As mentioned earlier, there is already some resistance present in the American elm population. Several resistant trees have been identified (showing various degrees of resistance), and there are surely more growing in the wild that have not been identified. Evolution is defined as the change over time in the genetic variation in a population. If some heritable phenotype (characteristic) becomes more or less prevalent in a population, evolution has occurred. In the case of elm trees, resistance to DED has certainly become more prevalent, since such a large percentage of susceptible trees have died. So, evolution has occurred. In this case, it does not take very long, since the genetic variation for resistance was already present in the population. Several resistant cultivars are available, and they are being planted by homeowners and parks all over the place. Pollen from these trees will surely speed up the distribution of DED resistance into the wild populations. You are correct that susceptible trees reach reproductive age before they succumb to DED. It is possible that new mutations which confer resistance will arise in that segment of the population, but there is no telling how long that will take. Such an estimate would require a lot of information that is just not available. In any case, I suspect this path wil be much slower than the one facilitated by the widespread planting of the various resistant cultivars. WRT to the DED genome project, I suspect that is more likely to lead to treatments for susceptible trees, rather than the development of DED resistant trees. An interesting quote from the link above: "itâÂÂs only a matter of time before most the elm trees are gone". I've got some news for you.....most of the elms are already gone! Alex

I have several wild American Elm growing on my property near Waco, Tx. I still have at least one of these potted (about 2' tall). IF someone wants it, I will send it to you bare-rooted free of charge up until end of April, except you must agree to post here annually its growth results and agree to at least weekly watering if no rainfall during spring -fall for first year. Our American Elm here appear to be DED- free, but the trees are much shorter than described back east. Our native Cedar Elm appear to be the better choice for here, but the few large American Elm growing only along river and creek beds do look nice. I am not an expert on American Elm, only an interested observer on the western fringes of their territory.

Yeah, you'll be good either way. I don't believe in any ratio, ie 30%, etc. of live crown. Each tree is too much an individual thing, plus, so much of my background is in municipal forestry, where we have to accommodate competing interests, leading to my having seen literally thousands upon thousands of trees, perhaps pruned a bit too heavily, still bounce back as though nothing had happened. That said, you've got the right idea, and if you want to take it a little slower, all the better. As to straightening out, this gets a little nuanced for some folks. Basically, a new tree is going to grow over the outside (but within the bark, of course)of that old tree, this, and all growing seasons to come. So no tissue already in place is going to change its orientation, but new growth will nevertheless drastically change how that tree occupies its spot. Gravity and phototropism are the two big forces which cause trees to grow more or less at right angles to the earth's surface they happen to be located on. Obvious exceptions are where a tree is overhung by other trees or shade-producing objects, where you'll see them arching out away from whatever it is shading them. Trees along river banks are a classic example. But that too is phototropism. Anyway, I think that very generally, the tree will appear to "straighten up". I had a linden tree on the terrace one time, where the property owner didn't like that it had a little streetward sway in the trunk. The tree had already been there for maybe 8 or 10 years, and she couldn't believe I couldn't just push on it to get it "straight"! But the point is, nobody would ever look at that tree today and know this had ever been a (perceived) problem. It's crown-reaching for light-is perfectly aligned, the trunk has fattened considerably, and that little tiny sway is hidden deep inside. I think your tree will do roughly the same, with the one caveat being that we can't predict what other storm winds, etc. may still mess with it in the future.