Bald Cypress in distress!

[David Nelams]

I have a Bald Cypress that I harvested 4 years ago, For 3 years it lived in a homemade goldfish pond, since I moved I repotted it. Everything was going good until I asked my 12yr old son to move it for me. I turned away for a minute that’s when he tried picking it up by the trunk, pulling the whole tree out of the soil. I immediately placed it back in its soil but now what growth it had has since died! Last week I placed its container in a tub of water hoping to revive it. Unfortunately I still haven’t noticed anything, no small buds on the trunk, nothing! Have I lost my tree? I know the general rule of thumb is repot in February so I’m stuck not knowing what to do! Please,any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[0soyoung]

You'll need to wait and see if it is a goner - watch for buds.

Bald cypress can cope with being submerged in water but it isn't what makes them tick. Get it out of the pond and don't water until the soil doesn't stick to your finger when you wiggle it down into the pot as deeply as you can get it. Roots must get oxygen to grow, even the roots of a taxodium distichum

Do your best to not move it with respect to the pot. This is will just redo the root damage and get you that much closer to ensuring it has no chance of living. Most of the mineral and water adsorption occurs through the extension of the walls of individual cells on the surface of the root a few millimeters behind the growing tip. Every time you wiggle the tree around relative to the pot of soil, you rip these hair roots off = extreme STRESS. .

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Give it 2 or 3 months, most of the summer, before you decide it is dead. Sometimes they can be very slow to bounce back. So don't give up hope until almost time for the snow to fly.

 

[rockm]

Get its out of the water into bonsai soil with 50/50 potting soil. Keep the soil moist and keep the pot out of the sun. Wait for a few weeks. It will probably recover.