Need advice on newly purchased Chinese Elm

[maughanbonsai]

I am brand new to owning a bonsai. I recently bought a tree from a vendor set up on the side of the road, and received a little advice which was hard to understand (his english was broken), but he obviously had a nursery judging from the volume of trees.
I have started looking online for advice and books but there is sooo much info that I'm not sure what to do and feel everyday is crucial at this point! I will try to keep this as short as possible!
The tree was marked as an Elm, through research, I think it is a type of Chinese Elm, but not sure! I bought it the end of May. I asked if I could keep it indoors and was told no, which makes me think it was an outdoor tree before I owned it. I decided to try to convert it to indoors which may have been a very bad idea! It was placed in a corner by my sink which receives direct sunlight from two windows from the south and west. I will post a picture of it I took when the leaves started to come in, and one of it now.
I made sure the blinds were open during the day so the tree could get sunlight, and took it outside every other day for a few hours, sometimes in direct sunlight, sometimes not, depending on the time of day, hoping this would help the tree adjust to its new home.
It looked to be coming out of dormancy when I bought it, since the weather was just starting to get warm. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is very low humidity with winters averaging 20° and summers around 100°. Since I think the tree was grown in Utah, the hot weather right now may not be new to this plant. It started sprouting leaves about two weeks after I bought it, after using a liquid fertilizer I was given from the vendor called Mogreen 5-10-20 mix. I was told to insert a bottle every other month near the back edge of the pot. It drains very slow, takes about three weeks until the bottle is empty, not sure if this is normal.
The tree had very small delicate branches that looked dead but I was told not to trim, which now snap off easily with no green inside. The leaves were growing well but were not completely in when I left it in care of my mom and went on vacation. When I came back the leaves were dried up and falling off even though she said she watered it three times in a week and a half which was probably not enough. Plus it sat on her counter out of direct sunlight in ambient light. I had hesitated to leave it and was teased by my kids that I loved "Mr. James Bonz", (the nickname my kids gave it), more than I loved them! I have been so excited about owning one for so long and this is my first! Because I bought it on a whim, I have not had a chance to really learn about caring for it properly yet!
I proceeded to take it home and have sumberged the pot in water for an hour twice this week, which were the original watering instructions given to me when I bought it. Before this, I was watering it from the top until it ran through the drain hole, only when the soil seemed less than damp. I have since read about the chopstick method and will be doing that. The leaves were so dry and shriveled I simply ran my fingers over the dead leaves and they all crumbled off. In the time I was away it also sprouted several new green shoots with leaves which I was told to trim off right away to keep its shape. I do not see any return of leaves and wonder if it is still alive and what to do. I put it on the porch today so it could get direct sunlight to see if that helps. A couple of the new green shoots I missed still seem to be alive.
The soil seems dense with small rocks on top and holds moisture for quite a few days. The bark seems to be peely, for lack of a better word, but has been that way since I bought it. The leaves, (when it had some), were growing in small and corrugated and dark green. I would like to repot in a different pot but when I asked the vendor if I could repot it he looked at me in horror and said what I think was a no! I bought it because I liked the shape of the tree, not the ugly pink pot! But I'm not sure if now is the best time to do this seeing as the tree is already under stress, but I would like to get a look at the soil and the roots to see if it needs different soil or if there is root rot. The soil just looks like dark brown mud for lack of a better word with small rocks on top. I have also since put another bottle of fertilizer in the pot as instructed. I'm nervous to keep it outside right now because of extreme heat.

[tomc]

As a rule deciduous trees are overwhelmingly outdoors trees. Only about one in five hundred growers build indoors conditions for elms or zelkova that are successful.

Modifying your signature block to reflect where you are growing will also help folks who reply to your posts.

[Gnome]

maughanbonsai,

wow, that's a lot to process. don't panic but do stop trimming the foliage, it is attempting to regrow and if you keep cutting the new shoots you will surely kill it. Next stop fertilizing it for now. I'm not of the camp that withholds fertilization from weak trees but in this case you have fertilized it recently and it is not, I gather, in a free draining medium, so lay off until you see a good flush of growth.

No, do not attempt to re-pot it this year, the correct time has passed this year. Do research and learn about what constitutes a proper free draining medium. Purchase or gather the correct medium/components and be ready next spring. This all assume that it makes a recovery.

Do you have a shaded location outside. One that gets morning sun and then dappled shade would be ideal but it is not going to fare well in your home with low humidity and, I assume, air conditioning. There is a product called shade cloth and if you are serious about bonsai you should do some research on that topic.

Water from the top rather than the bottom. Watering by immersion is OK from time to time and it is very effective in thoroughly saturating the soil but doing so routinely tends to favor the accumulation of salts/fertilizers. Definitely use the chopstick method. I have found it better to leave the skewer in place and check daily. This seems to give a more accurate indication of what is going on at the bottom of your pot. Always water thoroughly then monitor the soil in order to determine when to water again. Timing is the key, not the quantity of the water which should always copious.

Norm

[maughanbonsai]

I know, sorry to be so wordy, I guess I'm in panic mode! I updated my location so hopefully that helps.
Sounds like its not completely dead if there are new shoots...for now. No new shoots in the last week.
Hopefully the transition to being outside all of the time does not cause too much stress, it's over 100 degrees and dry. I do have a place where it will get morning sun on the front porch, then indirect light. I really want it to live! Should I trim back the dead little ends of the branches at all? Thank you for the advice!

[maughanbonsai]

Here are some pictures:

Two weeks after owning, leaves were coming in



Today

Dry, brittle twigs



Close up of soil



View of the new growth I didn't take off a week ago, and old leaves that are mostly fallen off, does bark look unhealthy?

[Marc]

I had one that dried out like that but eventually it came back but only brief before I gave up

it much preferred being planted in my garden, was forever maintaining it as growing fast