Bald Cypress forest progression

[Fi5ch]

I started this BC forest in March 2022 and pics below show the progression over the last ~15 months. First pic is March 2022, then Oct 2022, and finally May 2023. I kept it submerged in water inside a kitty litter pan for the entire time and growth was very good, even increase trunk girth while potted. I left one dead tree on the right and filled in with some smaller trees last week and its potted in 100% organic soil. Any thoughts for next steps or should I just let it grow out another year?

 

[crab apple]

It looks nice

 

[john blanch]

It looks cramped to me. And I don't like your fanned out design . I don't think trees with strong bases suit being planted in such a tight space. Building a forest with BC is a wonderful idea. But the placement in the small pot you've designed doesn't suit.

 

[Cajunrider]

The forest placement is already done and looks good. If it were me, I would prune the big tree down a little bit. It doesn't need to be that dominant. If you draw a triangle over the forest top, you will see how much you need to take away.
The whole forest needs a bigger pot. The forest will look so much better with some empty space. I myself have a few very crowded BC forests that I will move to bigger pots next year.

 

[Tieball]

I like your overall composition and how the growth is beginning to push out in a young forest. In time this forest will mature. I like that some of the trunks in the lowest levels are crossing over each other…I think it creates a good forest reality. I seldom see a forest where every tree is perfectly upright…and as a result to quiet looking. Well done on your visual execution that creates a pathway for my eyes to wander through the forest.

I would have difficulty keeping the soil enclosed and intact with that much soil exposed to the weather and watering elements. I’d have to much drying in summer, blowing in the winds and to much root freezing in winter. Perhaps the amount of root depth is driving the soil surface up high. I like the overall crowded appearance, however, it does seem to me that the pot needs slightly higher walls and with that wall-height change perhaps a wider oval. I have a habit of keeping trees in wood boxes where I can dictate the container measurements more easily. The problem for me is that I have trees, I have empty pots and I don’t have a driving force to merge those components together. Someday I’ll pot a tree.

I also appreciate and recognize that a forest planting starts younger and grows together to unify the view. You have it started. I don’t have a bonsai forest composition. I only wish I did. Maybe someday. Maybe. Keep the forest growing older.

 

[Cajunrider]

I like your overall composition and how the growth is beginning to push out in a young forest. In time this forest will mature. I like that some of the trunks in the lowest levels are crossing over each other…I think it creates a good forest reality. I seldom see a forest where every tree is perfectly upright…and as a result to quiet looking. Well done on your visual execution that creates a pathway for my eyes to wander through the forest.

I would have difficulty keeping the soil enclosed and intact with that much soil exposed to the weather and watering elements. I’d have to much drying in summer, blowing in the winds and to much root freezing in winter. Perhaps the amount of root depth is driving the soil surface up high. I like the overall crowded appearance, however, it does seem to me that the pot needs slightly higher walls and with that wall-height change perhaps a wider oval. I have a habit of keeping trees in wood boxes where I can dictate the container measurements more easily. The problem for me is that I have trees, I have empty pots and I don’t have a driving force to merge those components together. Someday I’ll pot a tree.

I also appreciate and recognize that a forest planting starts younger and grows together to unify the view. You have it started. I don’t have a bonsai forest composition. I only wish I did. Maybe someday. Maybe. Keep the forest growing older.

I actually see BCs that are mostly upright in the swamp. The only times when I see angle between the trunks are when we have more than one tree in the same spot. For me, when I put together a BC forest, I keep most of the trees upright and add in a few doubles for angles in trunk. At the edge of the forest, I will plant much smaller trees and have the trunks in sharp angle out to mimic the natural occurrences of seedlings from mother tree trying to reach sun light to survive.

 

[rockm]

Forest composition trees should be thought of in terms of triangle arrangements made up of interior triangle arrangements. Trees should also be placed close to one another and at mostly similar angles. The trees are spaced too evenly here, with regular spacing mostly separating them, as well as having apices that have no cohesive direction, they're all over the place. Forests typically don't have trees that point in all directions. Typically their environment determines the overall direction of growth...

Forests can be thought of as a single tree, or sets of groups of trees, with many trunks...and pruned accordingly. Choose a primary (larger trunk) tree or two (there are two thicker trunks in your forest), work with them first, placing secondary and tertiary trees in rough triangular arrangements.

A larger pot might help, but if you shorten the trees by a third (the lesser trunks by two thirds) and place them closer together in two cohesive groups
(or one, using the biggest as the focal point and using smaller trees receding away from it), this one can work. FWIW, sometimes you have to prune roots severely to get that closeness and effective nebari placement. The time to do that is at next years repotting.

Take a look through these and see how trunks are placed closely together, and branches developed with an overall silhouette.

The Magician’s Ezo Spruce Bonsai Forest | Bonsai Bark

US National bonsai: Goshin - Bonsai Empire

Truth is, this tree really needs no introduction, especially not from the likes of someone such as myself.

www.bonsaiempire.com

 

[Cajunrider]

Forest composition trees should be thought of in terms of triangle arrangements made up of interior triangle arrangements. Trees should also be placed close to one another and at mostly similar angles. The trees are spaced too evenly here, with regular spacing mostly separating them, as well as having apices that have no cohesive direction, they're all over the place. Forests typically don't have trees that point in all directions. Typically their environment determines the overall direction of growth...

Forests can be thought of as a single tree, or sets of groups of trees, with many trunks...and pruned accordingly. Choose a primary (larger trunk) tree or two (there are two thicker trunks in your forest), work with them first, placing secondary and tertiary trees in rough triangular arrangements.

A larger pot might help, but if you shorten the trees by a third (the lesser trunks by two thirds) and place them closer together in two cohesive groups
(or one, using the biggest as the focal point and using smaller trees receding away from it), this one can work. FWIW, sometimes you have to prune roots severely to get that closeness and effective nebari placement. The time to do that is at next years repotting.

Take a look through these and see how trunks are placed closely together, and branches developed with an overall silhouette.

The Magician’s Ezo Spruce Bonsai Forest | Bonsai Bark

US National bonsai: Goshin - Bonsai Empire

Truth is, this tree really needs no introduction, especially not from the likes of someone such as myself.

www.bonsaiempire.com

"trunks are placed closely together, and branches developed with an overall silhouette" is what I strive to do with all my forests, aside from my first forest, which I spaced the trees too far apart and had to practically replant later.