Species Study - Taxodium distichum

Cajunrider said:
I've been fascinated with this particular species. If you do a search on BonsaiNut, there are so many threads and posts on this species.
I found so much information on this thread: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/2019-season-bc-yamadori-mega-thread-d.36707/
And much inspiration from this thread: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/bald-cypress.30848/
After playing with this species for a few years I have learned some lessons.
  1. Forget about trying to grow BC from cuttings. Growing them from seeds is actually much much faster for most of us.
  2. BC from the big box stores (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart) and most nurseries have poor taper comparing to those grown from seeds myself. From seeds I can get to the size usually sold at the big box in less than 2 years (18 month average) and mine have much better taper and root spreads.
  3. Jury is still out on the dunking or not dunking. My sample experience of growing about 100 BCs so far (20 dunked, 20 not dunked, and 60 in ground) is inconclusive between the dunked and not dunked. However, the 40 in pots have more of my care and fertilization grew much faster than the plant it and forget it 60 in the ground. I suppose if I fertilize the ones in the ground they would grow fast too but I never did it.
  4. Don't be afraid of bare rooting BCs. I recommend checking and sorting out the roots of the seedling after the first year to make sure you have even root spread.
  5. Keep your soil shallow. If you transplant your BC and bury it too deep, it will readily form roots higher up the tree. You wind up with multi-tier roots that look wonky. Unless you desire wonky roots for your own design, don't do it.
  6. It is hard to develop the swamp buttress growing BCs in pot. If you really really want that buttress, get a collected BC.
  7. Don't be afraid to reach out to the members of BonsaiNut . The names of the distinguished members who know a lot about BCs are in the thread I list above.
Let me know what you have learned. I just collected some hulking stumps and will be documenting my finding in the future.
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Growing from cuttings. I have grown some but prefer growing from seeds.

 
I am reading a long thread on FB of argument about the same old subject of growing BCs in water. Instead of answering it there and have it buried in very hard to search FB, I am putting my observation here.

1. BC grows fastest in wet but not deeply flooded soil.
2. BC grows on firm soil has less taper and less defined flutes than those in wet soft soil.
3. Water level influences greatly where the flare starts.

Below are pictures of BCs grown in many acres in the same year in an area that has lots of rain. I walked past hundreds of big BCs on firm soil just to find a stunted one in water that has much better taper for bonsai.

PS: I didn’t want to get into a FB argument so here I am.

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I had to unwrap this split trunk and removed the wedges early to apply Talstar to get rid of fire ants.
Scar healing is well on the way. The bonus is that THEY HAVE THE APPEARANCE OF FLUTES!

As I mentioned before, this is now a routine method for me. High risk but reward is great.

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Thoughts on trunk chop of BCs.
In the past few weeks, I have seen many examples of BC trunk chops not only here but also on FBs. Perhaps it's good to discuss trunk chop of BCs here. Below are my thoughts and observations, correct me if you see that I am wrong.
  1. Don't chop the trunk unless it is the final size you want. Control the growth up top by nipping the tips of the top branches to force the growth down low for better taper.
  2. Once the trunk is chopped, a healthy BC will bud profusely around the chop, select your apex fairly early and cut off the other shoots else you will form a reverse taper at the chop area.
  3. For juvenile BC with trunk less than 3", you will need to chop the new apex again as soon as it gets to 1/3 of the main trunk. If you don't the new apex will quickly grow to be nearly the same size as the trunk. You wind up with trunk of the same size and an ugly kink at the chop. I have had this happened to several of my BCs due to my inexperience earlier. Nowadays I nip the tips of the apex regularly to restraint the apical growth and allow the low branches to grow.
  4. As mentioned before by many people, an initial flat chop is preferred unless you already have a healthy branch that can be readily promoted to an apex. For me, even in that case I will flat chop and make the angle cut later when the tree recovers from the chop.
  5. If you are going to a flat top design, a common strategy is to select an apex that is directly opposite to a good low branch that will be just below the final angle chop. That low branch should be trained to be the weak side of the flat top.
 
The last 20 trees I collected have been potted with straight cow manure and compost. All the trees are growing like crazy in it. It costs just $2.68/ft3. It is advertised as 0.5-0.5-0.5
IMG_2911.jpeg
 
Thirsty BC trunks.
I've been measuring water use by the bare BC trunks I collected. In a bus tub a medium BC trunk without leaves uses a quart and a large trunk uses near a gallon of water a day. Granted quite a bit of it is evaporation from the soil. Still, it shows me how quickly a collected BC trunk can dry out and die.
 
I'd like to give it a shot, eventually. I still have SO MUCH to learn. After I gain confidence with some dry climate bonsai, maybe I can start working with some water-loving species.
I've recently met a guy (online) who knows quite a bit about T distichum. And I vomitoria, too.
Lol
 
I remember asking for advice on tree with a large dominant root some time back. Well, I spent quite a few days in the last month walking the old irrigation canal and saw quite a few BCs with that large dominant root on the bank. The large dominant root is always on the water side buttressing the tree to keep it up right. In a lot of cases, the flute on top of that dominant root is narrow on the visible part, under the water, that root actually flares out quite a bit. Collecting these trees are dicey. That large root does not like the drastic prune and sometimes just die! When we get a chance to collect these, make sure you collect extra wide and deep on that dominant root. Beside structural support, that root often provides the majority of nutrients to the tree. The roots on the other side are often weak. After collection, the roots on the weak side will take off like crazy and the large root will struggle. This is where we need to be careful and keep that big guy alive.

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Cajunrider said:
I remember asking for advice on tree with a large dominant root some time back. Well, I spent quite a few days in the last month walking the old irrigation canal and saw quite a few BCs with that large dominant root on the bank. The large dominant root is always on the water side buttressing the tree to keep it up right. In a lot of cases, the flute on top of that dominant root is narrow on the visible part, under the water, that root actually flares out quite a bit. Collecting these trees are dicey. That large root does not like the drastic prune and sometimes just die! When we get a chance to collect these, make sure you collect extra wide and deep on that dominant root. Beside structural support, that root often provides the majority of nutrients to the tree. The roots on the other side are often weak. After collection, the roots on the weak side will take off like crazy and the large root will struggle. This is where we need to be careful and keep that big guy alive.

View attachment 558046
Click to expand...
Oh boy... hauling one of that out of the swamp is a Herculean effort.
 
Cajunrider

Post in thread 'What did you do today? Show us Pic Required'

Hacking through thorny thickets with my jungle knofe to get to the low, boggy spots where the BCs are. If you look carefully you will see water behind the thorn bushes.
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The BCs at these small boggy spots among the tall trees is different. They have big wide bases in the water but then the trunk quickly transitions into telephone pole taper and grows very tall so the BCs can reach sunlight among the canopy of the tall trees. This is much different than the BCs in the sun-drenched areas of the swamp, the bases are big and wide but the tops taper very sharply into short and squat trees.
 
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