Hello all, I just joined the forum and am quite excited to start my first bald cypress bonsai project. A little backstory:
I collected this BC in southern Florida in 2019 while I was working down there, and moved it back with me to upstate NY in late summer 2019. I put it in a temporary pot for the move which it stayed in through the winter of 2019-2020, and repotted it into this clay pot in spring of 2020 where it then produced all of the lignified growth you see here. There's a thin layer of lava rocks on the bottom, filled with primarily pine bark and all purpose potting soil with organics. I didn't do much pruning or any messing with it through 2020 to let it adjust from the shock of potting and bringing it up to yankee country. These pictures were taken today; the past week it's been budding and branching, much earlier than I was expecting since we're in the dead of winter. I'm hoping it will have an aggressive growing season this year.
It appears to be dead from where you see the upper most green growth/thickest branch on up.
I included a rough sketch of how I envision the trunk to move and display it's surface roots to the viewer. The first couple pictures will likely be the front.
Right now I'm picturing that highest, (relatively) thickest branch to be the leader, and either jin or aggressively carve the dead wood of the main trunk around this branch. At the moment I'm planning a flat top style with a jin or more hollowing out the trunk, the story being this tree was struck by lightning, or was damaged by a hurricane which killed much of the original trunk. I pulled it from an airboat trail where it had surely been beaten up pretty well.
I want to carve some of that bark and cambium above the leader this spring to kill the top of it if it isn't already dead, and let the leader grow with a bit more space away from the old trunk, and divert any nutrients from slipping past the leader.
Some questions for the experts: do you think it is safe to carve around the diameter of the dead trunk and facilitate a more natural new leader? I do assume this area is dead but I don't want to risk damaging the health of the tree.
When should main branch wiring of these lignified branches take place, maybe in the middle of the growing season when they're "wet" or after a mid season defoliation?
Any interesting or obvious designs I'm not picturing you may suggest?
I posted this in a different forum, I apologize if spamming in several forums is frowned upon: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/new-to-bonsai-asking-for-bald-cypress-development-guidance.48039/
Thank you!
I collected this BC in southern Florida in 2019 while I was working down there, and moved it back with me to upstate NY in late summer 2019. I put it in a temporary pot for the move which it stayed in through the winter of 2019-2020, and repotted it into this clay pot in spring of 2020 where it then produced all of the lignified growth you see here. There's a thin layer of lava rocks on the bottom, filled with primarily pine bark and all purpose potting soil with organics. I didn't do much pruning or any messing with it through 2020 to let it adjust from the shock of potting and bringing it up to yankee country. These pictures were taken today; the past week it's been budding and branching, much earlier than I was expecting since we're in the dead of winter. I'm hoping it will have an aggressive growing season this year.
It appears to be dead from where you see the upper most green growth/thickest branch on up.
I included a rough sketch of how I envision the trunk to move and display it's surface roots to the viewer. The first couple pictures will likely be the front.
Right now I'm picturing that highest, (relatively) thickest branch to be the leader, and either jin or aggressively carve the dead wood of the main trunk around this branch. At the moment I'm planning a flat top style with a jin or more hollowing out the trunk, the story being this tree was struck by lightning, or was damaged by a hurricane which killed much of the original trunk. I pulled it from an airboat trail where it had surely been beaten up pretty well.
I want to carve some of that bark and cambium above the leader this spring to kill the top of it if it isn't already dead, and let the leader grow with a bit more space away from the old trunk, and divert any nutrients from slipping past the leader.
Some questions for the experts: do you think it is safe to carve around the diameter of the dead trunk and facilitate a more natural new leader? I do assume this area is dead but I don't want to risk damaging the health of the tree.
When should main branch wiring of these lignified branches take place, maybe in the middle of the growing season when they're "wet" or after a mid season defoliation?
Any interesting or obvious designs I'm not picturing you may suggest?
I posted this in a different forum, I apologize if spamming in several forums is frowned upon: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/new-to-bonsai-asking-for-bald-cypress-development-guidance.48039/
Thank you!
