Species Study - Taxodium distichum

[Cajunrider]

If I own a tree like that, I will buy the pot! I think I will need a cattle feeder tub or a big cement mixing tub (36" L x 24" W x 8" D) when I collect that tree.

My oh my! I found my future training pot for the monster when I collect it. It's an old Samsonite hard case luggage I have sitting in my attic with no intention to use anymore. I just haven't gotten around to throwing it away. Now it is a candidate pot haha.

 

[Srt8madness]

Well I don't have the locations to collect BC yet, I am excited that Kroger finally got some stock in. $20 for a 5' tree with 1-1.5" base. That's even cheaper than wally world and less than half if Lowes/HD ($58)

 

[Cajunrider]

When the shoots are really young, gentle bending with just my fingers every day can keep the shoots from all pointing skyward. This makes it easier to wire those branches later.

 

[Cajunrider]

When the shoots are really young, gentle bending with just my fingers every day can keep the shoots from all pointing skyward. This makes it easier to wire those branches later.

Before bending. Note that the top few branches are allowed to go up to be apex.


After bending

 

[Cajunrider]

To prune or not to prune the young shoots after collecting a BC - That is the question for this post in the study of this species.
After collection my BCs practically have zero roots and zero top. All I got are practically the trunks. Based on my past experience with BC, I plant those trunks in a cheap mix of composted manure and top soil. They respond with explosive growth of shoots that I can see. I then wonder if I should try to direct that growth into the branches that I like. That thought got me into searching for all the information on BC collection. What I find is mixed; some recommend immediate pruning of those young shoots, others say let it grow for a year or more. To settle this question, I dig deeper into scientific papers and articles.

The following articles help a whole lot in forming my thinking.
Journal of Arboriculture 18(1): January 1992 39 ROOT-SHOOT RATIOS by Richard W. Harris
Perry.T.0.1982. The ecology of tree roots and the practical significance thereof. J. Arboriculture 8: 1970211
According to these articles, not counting the trunk, the ratio of roots to shoots is 1:1. For normal trees where the trunk is counted the ratio is usually 1:5 or 1:6 but we are talking bonsai here where a lot of the normal ratio may be skewed so I take the trunk out of the equation.

With the 1:1 ratio in mind, my strategy becomes simple. I have dug up enough BC to know what healthy root mass look like for a BC bonsai. I am going to let all the new shoots that show up after collection to grow until I see a mass of growth up top that signify I have enough roots down below to keep my BC healthy. Then I will make my selection of the shoots I want to grow and prune of the ones I don't want. As of now my guess is the spring/early summer growing season in my zone 9A. Mid summer I will do the shoot selection and let the fall growth develop those branches. I will continue to post pictures of all my BCs in their respective threads to show how things go.

 

[Cajunrider]

As measured from the roots chopped at collection. 3” long root growth in 4 weeks. Same growth observed from multiple trees.

 

[Cajunrider]

I looked back at many threads here where BCs from nursery were shown with circling and crossing roots. Many of us think that we just have to live with that bad base. We don't. BCs will root readily and we can redo the root base.

If I bought a big BC (2+" trunk) from the nursery for cheap and then found that the roots hopelessly circled the pots forming an unacceptable base, I will do the following.

If the tree is very healthy and I think there is plenty of energy reserve in the roots, early in the spring, just before bud break, I would chop the top, bare the root and cut off ALL the circling part until the roots are radial. Then I would pot the tree into a good size pot with nursery potting soil and put it in a spot where it would only get about 2-3 hours of morning sun for about 6-8 weeks for it to bud out. During this time, I will water it at least twice a day and keep the medium very wet. Make sure there is no standing water however, the pot needs to drain out. Once the shoots are 12" long, I would put the tree out to full sun. In a year that tree will be ready for styling. In this case, I pretty much treat the nursery BC like a collected BC and it works every time for me.

If the tree is a bit weak and we are already into late spring or early summer, I would prune the tree and reduce foliage. Then I cut one half circle of the roots to radial. Then I would pot and care for the tree the same as above and let it grow until next year. Next spring I will chop the tree and cut the roots to radial to the other half of the tree. The tree will be ready for styling the next year.

I hope this post is helpful for y'all.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I looked back at many threads here where BCs from nursery were shown with circling and crossing roots. Many of us think that we just have to live with that bad base. We don't. BCs will root readily and we can redo the root base.

If I bought a big BC (2+" trunk) from the nursery for cheap and then found that the roots hopelessly circled the pots forming an unacceptable base, I will do the following.

If the tree is very healthy and I think there is plenty of energy reserve in the roots, early in the spring, just before bud break, I would chop the top, bare the root and cut off ALL the circling part until the roots are radial. Then I would pot the tree into a good size pot with nursery potting soil and put it in a spot where it would only get about 2-3 hours of morning sun for about 6-8 weeks for it to bud out. During this time, I will water it at least twice a day and keep the medium very wet. Make sure there is no standing water however, the pot needs to drain out. Once the shoots are 12" long, I would put the tree out to full sun. In a year that tree will be ready for styling. In this case, I pretty much treat the nursery BC like a collected BC and it works every time for me.

If the tree is a bit weak and we are already into late spring or early summer, I would prune the tree and reduce foliage. Then I cut one half circle of the roots to radial. Then I would pot and care for the tree the same as above and let it grow until next year. Next spring I will chop the tree and cut the roots to radial to the other half of the tree. The tree will be ready for styling the next year.

I hope this post is helpful for y'all.

Thanks!

 

[Sekibonsai]

There was an old ABS journal article- could have been Dave Degroot- fastest way to develop seedlings is basically what would now be a hydro system- continuous flow of nutrient through the bed.

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

John Geanangel has some fantastic videos on the species on his great Youtube channel. Highly recommended.

 

[Cajunrider]

There was an old ABS journal article- could have been Dave Degroot- fastest way to develop seedlings is basically what would now be a hydro system- continuous flow of nutrient through the bed.

As fast as I have been able to grow BC from seeds, I shudder to think what monster @cmeg1 can create with his method.

 

[Cajunrider]

To dunk or not to dunk

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.

I've been spending days walking 1800 acres of land dotted with BCs that were planted from seedlings on previously farmland 20 years ago. Thanks to the special setting of nearly simultaneous planting plus my recent experience with collecting a whole bunch of large BCs, I gain a bit more understanding on BC and dunking.
1. Dunked trees don't grow as fast as well watered but in well drained soil. Trees in well drained areas grow about 30% faster based on my top mass estimate using trunk size and height.
2. Dunked trees will grow much more root mass than not dunked tree. In a more swampy, soft soil, the trees will develop bigger base and much more roots, trying to stabilize itself. If I estimate the base mass from the spot where the abrupt flare begins, trees growing in swampy water have about 15% more base mass as a ratio to the whole mass of the woody part of the tree.
3. Dunked collected trees respond poorly. They want very moist but well drained media to develop roots from severely pruned root base.

 

[cmeg1]

As fast as I have been able to grow BC from seeds, I shudder to think what monster @cmeg1 can create with his method.

I have considered growing these and also redwood ,as the seeds germinate without pretreatment.

 

[Sekibonsai]

This is one of my spots. These trees are all the same age. Some were planted to be submerged (this canal's level gets dropped periodically) and others in the heavy clay of the bank. The ones on the bank are 1/2 the size, about 12-16" versus 27". Also you can see the lack of buttressing on the bank ones. This is a sheltered area and these are only about 16 years in the ground so they are not as tasty as something coming out of the swamps at 50-75 year that gets frequent rocking by the wind and storms.

 

[Cajunrider]

This is one of my spots. These trees are all the same age. Some were planted to be submerged (this canal's level gets dropped periodically) and others in the heavy clay of the bank. The ones on the bank are 1/2 the size, about 12-16" versus 27". Also you can see the lack of buttressing on the bank ones. This is a sheltered area and these are only about 16 years in the ground so they are not as tasty as something coming out of the swamps at 50-75 year that gets frequent rocking by the wind and storms.View attachment 440050View attachment 440050View attachment 440050View attachment 440051View attachment 440052View attachment 440052View attachment 440052View attachment 440053View attachment 440053

That last one is beautiful. It appears the growth rates at your area is quite different than those at mine.

 

[Sekibonsai]

That last one is beautiful.

yeah that would be the one that is like 27" at the future soil line....

 

[Cajunrider]

yeah that would be the one that is like 27" at the future soil line....

Optimum growth spot?

 

[Cajunrider]

This thread has excellent discussion on how to start a flat top bald cypress.

Flat Top Bald Cypress

Picked this up from Zach last year and started it on its journey to hopefully becoming a flat top. I was able to slip pot it into this cheap training pot and get the trunk standing mostly upright. I also pruned off a lot of branches up and down the trunk. Here's what it looked like late...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Cajunrider]

A question for all our in house experts @Sekibonsai, @Zach Smith, @Mellow Mullet, @Joe Dupre' et. al.
I experience explosive growth for some of my collected BCs in just two months this spring. Should I let them continue to next year or can I do some branch selection during the summer lull so I can focus the growth in the second growing season I have late summer going into the fall?
My current thinking is to limit number of the top shoots to what I want. The lower branches will also be pruned to the ones I want to keep.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Go ahead and select the ones you want to keep, especially on the apex, as that will get away for you.