First repot on my biggest Bald Cypress

[Joe Dupre']

I collected this specimen a year ago and put it in a mortar tub in about 80% organic soil. I never flooded it but soaked it thoroughly every day. I've never really noticed a difference in
growth between soaking and flooding. I chopped about 3 inches of trunk off above the leader and smoothed and sealed the cut. The nice nebari is about 15" at soil level.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Ya gotta love South Louisiana. Cypress trees pushing buds in early Feb. Fig tree in the background has had leaves for 3 weeks or so. The lawn is greening up nicely. That cypress was a 7 mile ride and a 50 ft walk to collect. Yep, life is good!

 

[Cajunrider]

I collected this specimen a year ago and put it in a mortar tub in about 80% organic soil. I never flooded it but soaked it thoroughly every day. I've never really noticed a difference in
growth between soaking and flooding. I chopped about 3 inches of trunk off above the leader and smoothed and sealed the cut. The nice nebari is about 15" at soil level.

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Beautiful tree. What soil do you use now? I will need to repot a bunch in a year or so.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Love it. Need to get me a waterproof outfit and head down to La. I'm expecting a BC from your neck of the woods in the spring and will be watching this post for guidance.

Question on how best to chop a BC trunk. Can't really tell from the pic, but I was told to make the cut straight across the trunk part of the way through and then to angle the cut downward - Kind of like an upside check mark. And then to carve over the callous later in the season. Thoughts?

 

[Cajunrider]

Love it. Need to get me a waterproof outfit and head down to La. I'm expecting a BC from your neck of the woods in the spring and will be watching this post for guidance.

Question on how best to chop a BC trunk. Can't really tell from the pic, but I was told to make the cut straight across the trunk part of the way through and then to angle the cut downward - Kind of like an upside check mark. And then to carve over the callous later in the season. Thoughts?

Perhaps I can help. For my BC I make a flat cut above the desired final height and let the tree bud out free. 6 months to a year later I select the apex then re-chop the tree flat down to the selected branch. I then leave a small platform at the chop and make the angle cut as far down as I like to achieve the taper I want. A few years down the road, depending on how well the cut heal, I will carve the trunk as I see fit.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Love it. Need to get me a waterproof outfit and head down to La. I'm expecting a BC from your neck of the woods in the spring and will be watching this post for guidance.

Question on how best to chop a BC trunk. Can't really tell from the pic, but I was told to make the cut straight across the trunk part of the way through and then to angle the cut downward - Kind of like an upside check mark. And then to carve over the callous later in the season. Thoughts?

I pretty much do the same as Cajunrider except that I don't leave a small platform at the front of the angled cut. I find the callous rolls over better that way.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I've been gradually winnowing down my bonsai collection .........favoring quality over quantity. I have 8 or so BC in my collection now and they are basically all different styles. What I'll collect now is something that is substantially different or bigger than what I have. That is getting increasingly difficult. That goes for the mulberries and the Chinese elms too. I'm very fortunate in that I can leave to collect BC early in the morning and literally have a pickup truck full by 10:00 AM. Just this year I've gone from about 75 trees to right at 60. I put the "evil eye" on them, and if I thought they didn't have much of a future, I ripped them out of the pot, shook off the soil and threw them in the burn pile. Sounds harsh, but it was very satisfying. Granted, I'm a bit of a minimalist at heart.