Hi. I have an American elm that I trunk chopped. The hope was to let it grow wild for at least the year and then set the basic structure. It started out good with a bud low on the trunk and the trunk swelled a lot at the top. I thought more buds were going to break through but nothing. Now the question I have is should I now cut that shoot down to a few leaves? Hoping that since it’s recouped some energy that it will then stimulate the latent buds on the tree. I’d prefer not to have die back all the way down the trunk since resources are only coming from one location far down the trunk. The photo marked in red is where the swelling occurred.
It’s probably not a bad idea to cut that shoot back to just a couple of leaves. If you let it grow it will take all the energy and the tree will have no reason to put any buds out from the original trunk.
Spray it with silica and calcium.
You could also add HCF carbon but you would need to make sure you have nitrogen available at the roots. As carbon eats salts and all nitrogen has a sodium package.
I would get some super silica, calcium and hydro or garden and foliar twice a week