Early birthday present...Bald Cypress

aml1014

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What are your plans for the tree this spring? It needs a lot of work. I would honestly either cut it lower and wire a branch for a new apex and let it grow a few years for taper, or create a dead wood type section( induce more age) and/or the tree needs a full wiring and some cut backs.
It'll be repotted into 17×9×2 inch unglazed oval. I will also do quite a bit of branch selection/removal. The deadwood at the top will be carved and refined a bit. I'll also be allowing sacrifice branches to run for up to two seasons to get the branch thickness along the tree in proper proportions. Oh and of course a full wiring. Any suggestions you may have other then what I have planned?

It doesn't have extreme taper like more modern trees but it does have a great buttress, nice smooth taper going all the way up, and my favorite part is the knees that have developed under the moss.

Aaron
 

Wilson

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I am still looking forward to when you pull back all that moss! Like you said, I am sure there is a great base under there.
 

markyscott

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Aaron -

One thing that constant pinching of these trees will produce is long straigh branches with no taper or ramification and all the branching way out at the tips. It gives the branches and the tree a youthful appearance and makes them only look good when they're in leaf. It's something that you'll commonly find in trees when you get them, so we have to learn how to deal with problems like this. Here's what I see in this BC:
IMG_4894.JPG

Let's zoom into the lower part.
IMG_4895.JPG

And lose the image
IMG_4900.JPG

See the problem? Long taperless branches with no movement or ramification close to the trunk. So what do we do?

Scott
 
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markyscott

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The solution is not wiring. No amount of wire in the world will solve this. What you're going to have to consider doing is perform a radical cut back this winter.

Like this:
IMG_4899.JPG

In spring, you'll get a bunch of new growth (hopefully) from those old branches. If not, you'll get some new shoots on the trunk you can use (in which case you'll want to let them grow long to build girth and then do this cut back anyway).

Hopefully your tree will respond like this:
IMG_4898.JPG

The nex step is shoot selection. Prune off the shoots on the bottom and pick two horizontal shoots and a top shoot to allow to extend. Let them grow and when they've grown long enough, wire them while they're green. But don't touch the growing tip. Let them grow awkwardly long to build them into your primary branch structure. Like this:
IMG_4897.JPG

In the fall, you'll cut back again to the red marks. The next spring, you'll do it again. See the pattern? You'll end up with something like this:
IMG_4896.JPG

By the time you get to this stage, you should be thinking about structure - pick a leader and let it grow longer. And side branches that you prune shorter. And develop top branches so that your branch stucture doesn't look so flat - so it has depth. And then cut back again in fall to the red marks. It's freaky to cut all the branches on the tree off, but you'll be just kicking the can down the road until you do.

My advice is to perform a radical cut back and repot this year and focus on building branch structure for the next 6 years or so. Bald Cypress, like any deciduous tree, take a long time to develop.

Scott
 
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markyscott

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Here's an example on a bald cypress I did exactly this process with. It's on it's fourth year after the first big cut back.

IMG_0031.JPG


Let's focus on the lowermost branch on the left.

From the topIMG_4901.JPG

From the side
IMG_4902.JPG

Scott
 

markyscott

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The problem I've found with bald cypress is that the buds will often form on two year old growth and skip last year's growth. So I'll occasionally lose a year's work here and there on the tree. They just don't develop twiggy growth as easily as other deciduous trees as they like to send shoots from thicker branches. So as you build structure, let them grow longer than you think to ensure they're viable the following spring.

Scott
 

ColinFraser

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I completely agree with @markyscott

I'll just add that the branches at the top all have to go - way too thick.
Regarding the low branches - they don't need to be at thick as you might think. Notice how much bigger the trunk appears on markyscott's tree because of the smaller, shorter, compact branches kept close to the trunk.
 

aml1014

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I completely agree with @markyscott

I'll just add that the branches at the top all have to go - way too thick.
Regarding the low branches - they don't need to be at thick as you might think. Notice how much bigger the trunk appears on markyscott's tree because of the smaller, shorter, compact branches kept close to the trunk.
I definitely agree that the top branches are way too thick. One of the main reasons she gave this to me is that she hasn't been able to lift it on her own in several years, and I'll say she not a tall women (about 4'11"), so the top was just out of reach for her allowing those branches to beef up a lot!
I do get what @markyscott is saying and I'll probably take a similar action, but I do like the size of this tree and it's very natural trunk, so I'll probably only reduce it slightly. I do feel basically all branches need to be redeveloped from the bottom up, they are all very similar thickness and this thing has flat sides, which trees don't have lol.

Aaron
 

ColinFraser

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I do like the size of this tree and it's very natural trunk, so I'll probably only reduce it slightly. I do feel basically all branches need to be redeveloped
Cool. I'll just reiterate that one key to making a tall thin trunk look good as a bonsai can be short branches.
 

markyscott

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I definitely agree that the top branches are way too thick. One of the main reasons she gave this to me is that she hasn't been able to lift it on her own in several years, and I'll say she not a tall women (about 4'11"), so the top was just out of reach for her allowing those branches to beef up a lot!
I do get what @markyscott is saying and I'll probably take a similar action, but I do like the size of this tree and it's very natural trunk, so I'll probably only reduce it slightly. I do feel basically all branches need to be redeveloped from the bottom up, they are all very similar thickness and this thing has flat sides, which trees don't have lol.

Aaron

Hi Aaron. To be clear, I only drew the bottom part of the trunk out of laziness, not to suggest that you cut all the rest off. I was really focused on talking about building branch structure and not about promoting a major trunk chop. But the branches, I do suggest that you cut those back and start again. And I'm with Colin - cut them all the way off on the top as they're way too thick for the apex. The apex takes no time to develop. You'll be hacking that back a couple of time a season just to keep enough vigor in the lower branches to keep them going.

Scott
 

CasAH

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How much of the root ball did you remove?

Also, do you bare root like other deciduous trees? Or half bare root like a pine?
 

aml1014

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How much of the root ball did you remove?

Also, do you bare root like other deciduous trees? Or half bare root like a pine?
I pulled it out of its pot and just sawed 2/3s off the bottom, then I took off about 1/3 of the roots remaining around the tree, and yes I do bareroot my deciduous including BC.

Aaron
 

sorce

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I did, I wanted to get an oval l for it this winter, but life expenses were a little more of a priority:rolleyes: maybe next spring.

Aaron

Saw that Damn cooler down and throw it in there!

Sorce
 
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