Bald Cypress backbuds

[Barbells and bonsai]

These are looking awesome, my man. At what point do you wire down the primaries? Are they still very pliable and bendy when they’re thicker and closer to the ideal girth for the structure styling?

Thank you! As advised by @Cajunrider I was bending green shoots a bit every other day with the goal of shaping them early.
I chose to lightly wire some of the thicker, more established branches downwards if they were growing straight up but have backed that off as they curved back after anchor point.

@Srt8madness got it. I was told let it grow and recover health this first year so that’s my plan. I am concerned about whorls forming or branches hardening off in the wrong position but just trusting the process as this is my first BC and I’m still learning.

 

[Srt8madness]

Thank you! As advised by @Cajunrider I was bending green shoots a bit every other day with the goal of shaping them early.
I chose to lightly wire some of the thicker, more established branches downwards if they were growing straight up but have backed that off as they curved back after anchor point.

@Srt8madness got it. I was told let it grow and recover health this first year so that’s my plan. I am concerned about whorls forming or branches hardening off in the wrong position but just trusting the process as this is my first BC and I’m still learning.

First year branches will still be able to be wired even after hardening.

If you're doing a pyramid style, keep in mind lower branches need to be larger than smaller. So if you have a favored front, you could absolutely identify and tag a few lower branches for development. Most of the current upper growth will be totally removed eventually, to keep branching in scale.

BC are tough, you can even notch branches to bend them.

 

[Barbells and bonsai]

First year branches will still be able to be wired even after hardening.

If you're doing a pyramid style, keep in mind lower branches need to be larger than smaller. So if you have a favored front, you could absolutely identify and tag a few lower branches for development. Most of the current upper growth will be totally removed eventually, to keep branching in scale.

BC are tough, you can even notch branches to bend them.

Thank you.

Regarding the apex growth, I have one branch right on the chop line that I’d like to make into the new leader but it’s been overgrown by other branches so not getting as much light.

Should the branches blocking sunlight to the leader be removed?

 

[Barbells and bonsai]

Also, after taking @Cajunrider advice and removing the double branch something cool happened that I didn’t expect.
By the next morning the remaining branch had split at the very top into a V. Pictures to help it makes sense