Bald cypress impulse buy

[steves6684]

Hi everyone! This is my first post to this forum so please be kind to a 1 yr newbie!

Am fascinated by bald cypress so when I saw a local nursery had 4 gallon bald cypresses on sale couldn't resist the temptation. Well.. when I arrived they only had 2 left and they were in their shed, were totally brown (this is June 6th-in Middle Georgia) and I said "no way!". Manager then said I could have both of them for $5. So..I now have two bald cypresses approx 10' high sitting in growers pots in water containers on my driveway. Trunks both scratch moist and green, as do a few branches, but most branches (as well as leaves) are bone dry and brittle/brown.

Do I now prune dead branches and all brown foliage? My intent is to do trunk chops to about 1' tall in the next year or two to begin the process of taper to lead toward two flat-tops ( if I get them to survive!). Current trunks are 2-3" in diameter.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Carol 83]

Welcome ! I'll call in the Bald Cypress troops @Cajunrider @johng @BillsBayou they can help you.

 

[steves6684]

Thanks so much!!!!!

 

[Cajunrider]

Hi everyone! This is my first post to this forum so please be kind to a 1 yr newbie!

Am fascinated by bald cypress so when I saw a local nursery had 4 gallon bald cypresses on sale couldn't resist the temptation. Well.. when I arrived they only had 2 left and they were in their shed, were totally brown (this is June 6th-in Middle Georgia) and I said "no way!". Manager then said I could have both of them for $5. So..I now have two bald cypresses approx 10' high sitting in growers pots in water containers on my driveway. Trunks both scratch moist and green, as do a few branches, but most branches (as well as leaves) are bone dry and brittle/brown.

Do I now prune dead branches and all brown foliage? My intent is to do trunk chops to about 1' tall in the next year or two to begin the process of taper to lead toward two flat-tops ( if I get them to survive!). Current trunks are 2-3" in diameter.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Put them to a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade. Water them regularly. Prune off obvious dead branches. Then leave the trees alone to recover. We will get to the chop part later.

 

[steves6684]

Thanks very much!!!!!!

 

[19Mateo83]

Our local rajun Cajun is spot on. Chop dead stuff, apply generous water and let it do its thing…. Also…. Welcome to the nut house!

 

[steves6684]

Thank you for both the reinforcement of good advice from Cajun and also for the welcome! Have already moved BC to receive AM sun instead of PM and am pruning back all dead branches' etc. today. Will probably prune 90% of the branches (that's my estimate of the % branches dead and brittle).

Thanks again to all!!!!

 

[BillsBayou]

1 year newbie to bonsai? Welcome!

Garden nurseries want to sell good looking trees. We don't always want to buy the good looking trees. We often want the ugly trees; the ones the nursery can't sell. We also want trees in the clearance areas.

This is me buying a clearance crepe myrtle. The tree was 75% off and I left 75% of the tree in their dumpster.

Nurseries can often spot us by the trees we buy and how we shop. Every bonsai begins with a good base. So we go around the nursery only looking at the base of their trees.

I bought all 4 ugly crepe myrtles from a nursery. The owner, who I've never met, says "Those are going to make great bonsai." He said he knew I was going to do bonsai with them because of how ugly they were and how I was only looking at their bases.

As for your $5 find, see if you can get them to recover before you do anything else. 10-foot BC sound great. The problem may be their roots. In pots, the roots grow laterally until they hit the sides of the pot, then they go down and around and around. Fine for landscape trees, but you'll have trouble putting them in a bonsai pot. If the trees do well by the end of September, you should put them in larger pots; only if they do well. Do not comb out the roots, but if you see any roots that are growing wonky, you may want to brace them out with some rocks or broken brick. A BC should spread at it's base. The roots go out and disappear naturally under the soil. Nursery BC, however, go out and suddenly dive down or around and there's nothing you can do to make them look right. Hence the larger pots in the fall.

I collect BC from the wild, so I don't see the point of paying for them. However, $5 for two 10-foot trees? I don't care how ugly the trees are at $2.50 each. It could have the worst roots in the world and I'd have gotten them. Great find!

 

[steves6684]

Thanks for the info and encouragement!

By the way-i have been a subscriber of your YouTube channel for many months. Have already learned a lot from you!!!

Nice of you to respond with such complete and useful info.

 

[steves6684]

Everyone--thanks so much for all your help! As you can see from these photos taken a few minutes ago, these 2 for $5 bald cypress trees seem (to this neophyte, at least) to be doing well after I took your advice. (Pic of 2nd BC seems to be slow to load..not sure it will come through). Anyway-i put in AM sun and poured water to them..

Can't thank you enough for the dead on advice!

 

[steves6684]

Here is pic of 2nd BC.

 

[BillsBayou]

First tree: Dead branch tips are expected from your initial post. It's greening out nicely.
Second tree: Very weak apex, much stronger at the base. Another expected result.

Let's see the bases of the trees! (You can put more than one image in a single post)

Something I left out of my earlier post: Nursery trees ALL have a problem with roots strangling the trunk. When it is time to repot the tree, remove crossing roots if they are small. If you have any fat roots strangling the trunk, it may already be too late. HOWEVER, there is a solution that would work fine on small BC like yours. We'll jump that hurdle if it exists.

 

[DanaWhicker]

Congrats on your amazing purchase of some very cool trees!!

 

[Michael P]

In pots, the roots grow laterally until they hit the sides of the pot, then they go down and around and around. Fine for landscape trees,

NOT FINE for landscape trees! Sorry but respectfully I must correct this. When planted in the landscape, circling roots become girdling roots. This makes the tree very prone to blow-over in storms and premature death.

Excellent find on the trees.

 

[BillsBayou]

NOT FINE for landscape trees! Sorry but respectfully I must correct this. When planted in the landscape, circling roots become girdling roots. This makes the tree very prone to blow-over in storms and premature death.

Excellent find on the trees.

I'll defer to people who know what they're doing. Thank you. I learned something.

 

[Michael P]

You're welcome, and I hope it didn't seem rude. I've been a landscape architect for 40 years and see this over and over. Contractors hated me because I inspected every tree and rejected any that had circling roots.

It has an interesting relationship to what we do in bonsai--periodic root pruning. This usually is not done in the nursery industry. A pot-grown seedling with circling roots is shifted into a larger pot with no attention to the roots where it develops a second set of circling roots. Sometime you can find three or four distinct sets of circling roots, each marking when the tree was moved into a larger pot.

Some of the containers we have adapted for bonsai use from nursery production were developed just to prevent this. Air pots, grow bags, and the various types of Root Maker pots are examples.

 

[steves6684]

Congrats on your amazing purchase of some very cool trees!!

Thanks!

 

[steves6684]

You're welcome, and I hope it didn't seem rude. I've been a landscape architect for 40 years and see this over and over. Contractors hated me because I inspected every tree and rejected any that had circling roots.

It has an interesting relationship to what we do in bonsai--periodic root pruning. This usually is not done in the nursery industry. A pot-grown seedling with circling roots is shifted into a larger pot with no attention to the roots where it develops a second set of circling roots. Sometime you can find three or four distinct sets of circling roots, each marking when the tree was moved into a larger pot.

Some of the containers we have adapted for bonsai use from nursery production were developed just to prevent this. Air pots, grow bags, and the various types of Root Maker pots are examples.

You're welcome, and I hope it didn't seem rude. I've been a landscape architect for 40 years and see this over and over. Contractors hated me because I inspected every tree and rejected any that had circling roots.

It has an interesting relationship to what we do in bonsai--periodic root pruning. This usually is not done in the nursery industry. A pot-grown seedling with circling roots is shifted into a larger pot with no attention to the roots where it develops a second set of circling roots. Sometime you can find three or four distinct sets of circling roots, each marking when the tree was moved into a larger pot.

Some of the containers we have adapted for bonsai use from nursery production were developed just to prevent this. Air pots, grow bags, and the various types of Root Maker pots are example

First tree: Dead branch tips are expected from your initial post. It's greening out nicely.
Second tree: Very weak apex, much stronger at the base. Another expected result.

Let's see the bases of the trees! (You can put more than one image in a single post)

Something I left out of my earlier post: Nursery trees ALL have a problem with roots strangling the trunk. When it is time to repot the tree, remove crossing roots if they are small. If you have any fat roots strangling the trunk, it may already be too late. HOWEVER, there is a solution that would work fine on small BC like yours. We'll jump that hurdle if it exists.

Thanks Bill!! Attaching pics per request. The first base is the one with the weak apex. Greatly appreciate your comments!

First tree: Dead branch tips are expected from your initial post. It's greening out nicely.
Second tree: Very weak apex, much stronger at the base. Another expected result.

Let's see the bases of the trees! (You can put more than one image in a single post)

Something I left out of my earlier post: Nursery trees ALL have a problem with roots strangling the trunk. When it is time to repot the tree, remove crossing roots if they are small. If you have any fat roots strangling the trunk, it may already be too late. HOWEVER, there is a solution that would work fine on small BC like yours. We'll jump that hurdle if it exists.

Thanks Bill! Attaching pics per request. 1st pic is the one with weak apex. 2nd one is the one that is greening out better.

The one with the weak apex appears to me as a newbie to be doing very well closer to the base with a forest of greenery about 2 feet from where the trunk enters the grow medium (same pot and soil as when I bought the two trees a few weeks ago).

Greatly appreciate comments/guidance.

First tree: Dead branch tips are expected from your initial post. It's greening out nicely.
Second tree: Very weak apex, much stronger at the base. Another expected result.

Let's see the bases of the trees! (You can put more than one image in a single post)

Something I left out of my earlier post: Nursery trees ALL have a problem with roots strangling the trunk. When it is time to repot the tree, remove crossing roots if they are small. If you have any fat roots strangling the trunk, it may already be too late. HOWEVER, there is a solution that would work fine on small BC like yours. We'll jump that hurdle if it exis

First tree: Dead branch tips are expected from your initial post. It's greening out nicely.
Second tree: Very weak apex, much stronger at the base. Another expected result.

Let's see the bases of the trees! (You can put more than one image in a single post)

Something I left out of my earlier post: Nursery trees ALL have a problem with roots strangling the trunk. When it is time to repot the tree, remove crossing roots if they are small. If you have any fat roots strangling the trunk, it may already be too late. HOWEVER, there is a solution that would work fine on small BC like yours. We'll jump that hurdle if it exists.

Thanks Bill! Attaching pics as requested. 1st pic is the one with the weak apex. 2nd pic is the other one.

First tree: Dead branch tips are expected from your initial post. It's greening out nicely.
Second tree: Very weak apex, much stronger at the base. Another expected result.

Let's see the bases of the trees! (You can put more than one image in a single post)

Something I left out of my earlier post: Nursery trees ALL have a problem with roots strangling the trunk. When it is time to repot the tree, remove crossing roots if they are small. If you have any fat roots strangling the trunk, it may already be too late. HOWEVER, there is a solution that would work fine on small BC like yours. We'll jump that hurdle if it exists.

Thanks Bill. 1st pic is base of the one with weak apex. 2nd pic is the one greening up better. Comments greatly appreciated!

 

[steves6684]

The one with the weak apex appears to me as a newbie to be doing very well closer to the base with a forest of greenery about 2 feet from where the trunk enters the grow medium (same pot and soil as when I bought the two trees a few weeks ago).

Greatly appreciate comments/guidance.



Thanks Bill! Attaching pics as requested. 1st pic is the one with the weak apex. 2nd pic is the other one.

Thanks Bill. 1st pic is base of the one with weak apex. 2nd pic is the one greening up better. Comments greatly appreciated!

FYI soil is exactly what I bought them in. Also have not yet fertilized. Have both mushroom compost and pumice/lava/calculated clay/bark mix available when time to report..

Also..was having wifi trouble when loading pics. Sorry if multiple messages came thru. Completely unintentional.

 

[Joe Dupre']

As someone who had 17 bald cypress trees in my yard for 25 years, I would advise against them in the landscape. All is well the first 10-15 years, and then the knees make their appearance. They first come out as broomstick sized. Next come the wrist sized and, in the end, LEG sized. NOT good for the lawnmower. Nurseries may SAY they don't make knees, but don't buy into that.