Forsoothe!'s Bald Cypress duo...

[Forsoothe!]

I can't find the original posting to expand upon for these two, so I'm repeating it here and starting this thread to monitor the process from beginning to perfect trees in under 10 years. You believe that, don't you? Here they are are, Mr. Big...

And Mr. Small...

Both of these came in with very little root attached, but I understand they will root easily in the right conditions, and early February should be just fine as a collection & potting time for these two from Louisiana. They are dormant now, Feb. 12, (and still as of March 15). The white dust is hormone. They were shipped to me bare-root and wet in a plastic bag. I wet them again and dusted the root zone with hormone, put them in a sealed plastic bag for two days and planted them in my potting mix which is very high in organics and amended with equal parts Pine Bark Soil Conditioner with bone char, Kelp Meal, Menefee Humate, Jersey Green Sand, and wet out with a Fulmic & Humic Acid and Kelp solution at the low end of the recommended application rate. I added a splash of my fert solution a week later of 20-20-20 NPK, Epson Salts, Copperas, Superthrive, Fulmic & Humic Acid, and liquid Kelp.

They both have nicely sawed bottoms that set directly on the bottom of the pots and are set in 3 1/2" to 4" pots with no anchor roots to bind them down, so they are not wired in. I don't wire-in except in rare cases where the trees have unbalanced architecture and would fall out of the pot. The root systems fill the media soon enough and hold them in-place and I habitually over-pot, anyway. I'm going overboard here with extra deep pots in hopes of getting more roots higher up to partially expose later. The Ends have been sealed with Elmer's. Mr. Small sucked the glue in and took several applications to puddle. Mr. Big was wetter and took only one heavy application. I will decide on what carving to do based upon what grows where. My goals lie somewhere in-between these images...

These are both now in my greenhouse in positions where the overhead window condensation dips into the pots so they will be appropriately soggy until time to go outdoors in early May...


These were both acquired from a new B'Nut kid, @Arh030. Andy is in Louisiana and is building a collection of good native trees to sell or trade for interesting trees from outside his area. He has or can collect a long list of Species:
Bald Cypress
Hornbeam
Hop hornbeam
Shortleaf pine
Am. Beech
Am. And winged elm
Wild blueberry, huckleberry
Wild grape, several spp.
Chinese privet
Tallow tree
Sweet gum
Black gum
Sugarberry
Hawthorn spp.
Prunus spp.
All the different oaks
I’m sure I’m missing some more
Species:
Bald Cypress
Hornbeam
Hop hornbeam
Shortleaf pine
Am. Beech
Am. And winged elm
Wild blueberry, huckleberry
Wild grape, several spp.
Chinese privet
Tallow tree
Sweet gum
Black gum
Sugarberry
Hawthorn spp.
Prunus spp.
All the different oaks
He is easy to deal with and treated me very well, and I highly recommend contacting him via PM to see if you have something he is interested in. Or, city-slickers can buy that special tree you haven't been able to find.

I welcome anyone to join in posting your own or others' BC and/or style goal or advice on how to get there from here. Contrarians welcome, too.

 

[HENDO]

Throw those suckers into some big tubs and get the chainsaw warmed up for some carving action!

 

[Sekibonsai]

If you go in your profile (upper right hand of your screen) there is a link to your postings ... if you really want to find your old post.

 

[Forsoothe!]

If you go in your profile (upper right hand of your screen) there is a link to your postings ... if you really want to find your old post.

It was within someone else's post about something I can't remember.

 

[Sekibonsai]

I tend to NOT believe it...

Given your climate and your approach...

I hope there is some decent basal flare down in that dirt because you won't really develop it in a pot. Not sure why you would put glue on the bottom when you really want a mass of fine feeders coming off the bottoms. Growing roots out of the sides will resulting a bunch of spider legs not the buttresses in your picture. There is slight hope of "approach grafting" them to the trunk but they will tend to look like just what they are.

Also, our BC are popping and collected BC tend to maintain their "programming". Hope yours will start moving soon.

 

[Sekibonsai]

Also, how humid is your green house? You want to keep those trunks nicely hydrated!

 

[Forsoothe!]

There's no glue on the bottom, just the top where any cut would be sealed. I wouldn't compare growth rates for a tree like BC between pleasant Detroit summers and Houston which is infamous for humid summers. The difference in growing season for your zone 8 and my 6b are also considerable. I'll be happy to have a moderately nice tree.

 

[Sekibonsai]

Ahhh. I thought you put glue on the bottom... (dafuq???????)

I also won't mention the rarity of southern BC kept long term of the M-D line...

Definitely take my humidity thoughts to heart. Harry Harrington wraps his in black plastic and uses a soil warmer for his yamadori. They WILL think they are in LA for a while if not always tho. My monster gave me this yesterday- been out of the black tarp about a week, daily soaking of trunk...

 

[HENDO]

Ahhh. I thought you put glue on the bottom... (dafuq???????)

I also won't mention the rarity of southern BC kept long term of the M-D line...

Definitely take my humidity thoughts to heart. Harry Harrington wraps his in black plastic and uses a soil warmer for his yamadori. They WILL think they are in LA for a while if not always tho. My monster gave me this yesterday- been out of the black tarp about a week, daily soaking of trunk...View attachment 361604

My new monster also gave me it's first 2 poppers yesterday - go figure in the worst possible spots but excited to see some more over the next few weeks!

I've noticed on the larger chopped BC that sap starts to flow like crazy just before buds popping. Mine are getting soaked at least once a day as well they love it!



Can you spot them?


The dark sap flows at night:

 

[Forsoothe!]

Are those little pops resin colored? I have a couple of those and couldn't ID them. The few BC I have seen in the landscape up here are a line of them on a string of boulevard islands in Troy, MI. The ~30' wide islands are raised, are in-between two lanes of traffic on each side with large parking lots of shopping centers on either side. This is the personification of dry and exposed to dry heat in summer and cold salt spray from traffic in winter. They have been there happily maybe 20 years. I can do better in a pot without holes that I water every day. I won't get your knees, but I can still be happy.

 

[Cadillactaste]

It was within someone else's post about something I can't remember.

I believe it was in the thread what you bought with your bonsai money.

 

[Sekibonsai]

BC are amazingly adaptive- drought tolerant although they love the water. There is a tipping point where there is too much salt, but they do okay in slightly brackish water as most of their southern range is in tidally-influenced bayous, etc.

You MIGHT get knees in a mucky mix and keeping them submerged. Just don't do the folded root thing GAWD that looks exactly like what it is... Not sure how I'm going to get this knee that I got closer to the trunk. This was developed in a big plstic bin of muck that was kept full of water... Stylistically I am basically removing what ever offends me and seeing what happens. A bit free form- multiple canopied flat toppish I think.

 

[Sekibonsai]

 

[Forsoothe!]

I'd settle for a nice flare at the base. I'm growing it for the canopy and the tall, bare lower trunk. No phony knees here.

View attachment 361615

That's more moss than tree!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Oops

 

[Sekibonsai]

My new monster also gave me it's first 2 poppers yesterday - go figure in the worst possible spots but excited to see some more over the next few weeks!

I've noticed on the larger chopped BC that sap starts to flow like crazy just before buds popping. Mine are getting soaked at least once a day as well they love it!

View attachment 361606

Can you spot them?
View attachment 361608

The dark sap flows at night:
View attachment 361609

Good sign the roots are going!! Love that confirmation! Nice base on that.

 

[Sekibonsai]

I'd settle for a nice flare at the base. I'm growing it for the canopy and the tall, bare lower trunk. No phony knees here.

That's more moss than tree!

Yeah that's one thing no one has replicated... the moss...

I'd figure out what your main roots are going to be around the trunk and keep letting them grow out freely to give you some buttressing effect.

 

[Zach Smith]

Not to throw cold water on the new BC's you got, Forsoothe, but if they were taken from the ground and cleaned and shipped to you and haven't been established, you have given them inadequate soil volume for re-rooting and it's a crap shoot as to whether or not they will live - it was a crap shoot to start with (were the chops sealed?). Also, no offense to Andy in Louisiana, but the list of species there indicates little experience collecting or growing quite a few of those listed as bonsai (black gum, will be eager to see one of those lifted successfully; Chinese tallow - terrible species for bonsai; prunus - if it's black cherry they usually succumb to disease). Anyway, hopefully your BC's will live but if not you may want to go for an established tree or two in the future.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I will take all that under advisement. Thanks. Andy is a new kid and will learn over time. He's smart enough to be a member here...

 

[Arh030]

No offense here, I freely admit to little experience. That was a list of species I have access to. I work in the woods and can get practically anything native to North Louisiana or South Arkansas. As I told Forsoothe, if someone is interested in a particular species I will dig it and ship it however you like. It’s a good learning experience for me. Beware, when we talk about what you want and how you want it packaged and shipped, I’m going to pepper you with questions. If it dies... well your out shipping and a fraction of the cost of a tree that’s been in a pot for a year. For anyone interested I’d much rather trade than sell, I promise you’ll come out on top. I’m interested in any species I can’t collect myself. Also interested in rare fig cuttings and scion wood for mulberry, mayhaw, pawpaw, or pecan (I have a lot of irons in a lot of fires). Spp. is an abbreviation that means various species within the genus, for Prunus that would include serrata, but also the various wild plum species.