Bald cypress nursery stock, in ground with grow bag. Best time to bring it home?

[dacoontz]

Hey there,

Quick question. Recently committed to a decent sized bald cypress that has been growing in the ground with a grow bag containing the root ball. Caliber of the trunk is at least 4 to 5 inches across. It's probably 8 to 10 feet, really good taper at the bottom third and some low branching to work with. Just wondering when would be the absolute best time to bring it out of the ground and if the Fall is a reasonable time to do so, best before it drops it leaves or after?

Thank you as always for any advice.

 

[BillsBayou]

Is this at a local nursery?
If so, ask the nursery when it would be the best time.

My advice would be to either put it in the ground on your property or to over-pot it. Then keep it for a year to understand how it responds to your care.

It looks healthy. If it were my tree, I'd ignore the advice I just gave you. Fetch the tree before the buds swell at the end of winter. Over-pot the tree in a water-sealed tub and drown it. Then chop the tree to just under those lowest branches. If there are any twigs lower on the trunk, cut off the last 1/2" (~10cm) of those twigs.

You're in Zone 8b. I'm in 9a. Close enough in zones to do this.

HOWEVER!!! I can dig multiple bald cypress and do whatever I like. For me, these are free trees. If I wanted to douse one in gasoline to see if it can survive a fire, I'll do it.

 

[Maiden69]

Is half the bag in the soil, or is it just sitting on top? If it is in the soil, I'm pretty sure there are escape roots and you may have to wait till late winter. I don't think this tree is just sitting on top, because at that height it would be topping over all the time. I like to wait till buds start to swell to chop and repot... so for that tree in an 8b could be mid Feb. That's when my BC start to wake up. You could bring it home now, place the bag inside a tub and fill with water, you will need to stake the tree because it will tip over. Next year do the shop and root work on early spring. Plenty of options available... and plenty of time to figure out which way you want to go.

 

[BillsBayou]

... Next year do the shop and root work on early spring. ...

I write sentences like this all the time. Me and my fat fingers.

Was that supposed to read "Next year do the chop and root work in early spring." ??

The texting app on my phone is filled with follow up messages that begin with an asterisk "*in the ground, not on the ground" Crap like that.

 

[Maiden69]

I write sentences like this all the time. Me and my fat fingers.

Was that supposed to read "Next year do the chop and root work in early spring." ??

The texting app on my phone is filled with follow up messages that begin with an asterisk "*in the ground, not on the ground" Crap like that.

Multitasking, typing without looking at the keyboard and then hoping I will get the a-ha little red lines under a word that I misspell to correct it... in this case "shop" was correctly spelled so no red lines, so I fired away.

The bolded statement has been my problem forever... I'm ESL, Spanish is my first language and I mess the in-on all the time. My wife corrects me all the time, blah, I tell her to speak Spanish so I can understand her better. Does not work.

 

[dacoontz]

It’s rooted in somewhat because when I push on the bag it doesn’t fall over. It does wiggle pretty good though. Nursery deferred the question back to me. They doubt there’s many deep roots. Their only reservation was to wait until after the 90 degree weather were supposed to have next week. However, don’t these things like the heat and humidity? Wondering if I should have grabbed it 2 days ago when I didn’t have work in the way. As far as storage, definitely too tall to not look awkward at my place but could protect it enough to not get blown over, maybe.

Should mention weather is funny here. I could have another two weeks or two months of growing season here with the unpredictability of this valley.

 

[Maiden69]

If there are just a few roots out, you should be fine. The beauty of the bags (Rootpouch and Root Maker) is that they promote a ton of small feeder roots close to the tree, and the very few that escape help to give the tree some girth. But when you remove it from the ground, the majority of the roots that are feeding the tree are contained inside the bag. This is why Telperion was so successful with their trees.