Species Study - Taxodium distichum

[John P.]

Are there any reasons why you keep that bare top? What is your plan for its design?

Planning for deadwood. Stripping the bark also helped to settle down the apical nature of the tree, of course.

For me I would use something far cheaper such as a cut off OSB board that you can find at just about any construction site.

I kept half of the pot submerged throughout the last summer, and the leaves did much better than before. The HDPE should perform longer (indefinitely) with that wetness.

 

[Cajunrider]

Two grafts on a knee for collection in the future.
PS; I never thought I would have to water BCs in a swamp but there I was watering these little grafts.
View attachment 502401

The curious beavers ripped through the tape and dug up both BC seedlings and chew them to bits.
Does anyone know a good beaver recipe? I heard that Beaver Atlanta Special is a decent one. Then there is the default Cajun deep fry beaver and my Beaver Shitake & King Mushroom stew.

 

[Cajunrider]

Observation/Research on BCs that have regressed after the initial flush after being collected or heavily worked on.
1. If the leaves stay lime green but the shoots are not extending and forming new leaves/branches, the tree is growing all that on its energy reserve. Be careful, your roots are not receiving much from the newly formed leaves. Don't play with the foliage, don't pinch, don't prune, don't even attempt to bend the shoots to make them horizontal. TLC is absolutely needed.
2. The thing to look for is the change in the shoot color. You want to see the shoots to turn sort of pinkish, then kind of orange. According to Randy Bennett, the change in color of the shoot indicates the two-way vascular flow is happening and the leaves are feeding the roots. I am seeing the same on all my healthy trees. The few that are struggling, the shoots just remain light green for a long time. Once again don't play with the shoots until you are assured that the two-way vascular flow is happening to get the tree growing both on top and at the bottom. My friend plucked away the shoots and leaves on the trunks of collected BC because they were not at the "right places", he killed a couple trees and two more are struggling. I just took them home to babysit those trees.
3. If you get only lime green leaves and shoot, be careful with giving the tree more sunlight. Do it very gradually, those tender lime green leaves and shoots can dry to a crisp in just a day or two. When that happen, the tree may not have enough energy left to create another flush and it will die.

 

[Cajunrider]

Observation/Research on BCs that have regressed after the initial flush after being collected or heavily worked on.
1. If the leaves stay lime green but the shoots are not extending and forming new leaves/branches, the tree is growing all that on its energy reserve. Be careful, your roots are not receiving much from the newly formed leaves. Don't play with the foliage, don't pinch, don't prune, don't even attempt to bend the shoots to make them horizontal. TLC is absolutely needed.
2. The thing to look for is the change in the shoot color. You want to see the shoots to turn sort of pinkish, then kind of orange. According to Randy Bennett, the change in color of the shoot indicates the two-way vascular flow is happening and the leaves are feeding the roots. I am seeing the same on all my healthy trees. The few that are struggling, the shoots just remain light green for a long time. Once again don't play with the shoots until you are assured that the two-way vascular flow is happening to get the tree growing both on top and at the bottom. My friend plucked away the shoots and leaves on the trunks of collected BC because they were not at the "right places", he killed a couple trees and two more are struggling. I just took them home to babysit those trees.
3. If you get only lime green leaves and shoot, be careful with giving the tree more sunlight. Do it very gradually, those tender lime green leaves and shoots can dry to a crisp in just a day or two. When that happen, the tree may not have enough energy left to create another flush and it will die.

Example of a tree that is struggling. These green leaves and tiny shoots have been on the tree for 3 months and not growing much.


It took me more than a month to get a few new shoots growing properly on that tree.


In contrast these shoots are only a few weeks old, they have changed color and the whole tree, collected late in the summer, is growing well.

 

[Cajunrider]

So I got bored and played with some seedlings. 4 trunks twisted together to make a clump.

 

[John P.]

So I got bored and played with some seedlings. 4 trunks twisted together to make a clump.
View attachment 517732

Any experience with BC fusing?

 

[Cajunrider]

Any experience with BC fusing?

Very limited. Since I have access to big trees, I am not interested in fusing a bunch of seedlings to make a trunk. However, I am going to fuse a few to make a clump.

 

[Cajunrider]

A bout of severe flu knocked me out of all activity for a week. Half of my BCs are just entering dormancy. The other half with Batman/Robin and the twin are still growing. I think winter trim and wiring can wait a little longer.

 

[Carol 83]

A bout of severe flu knocked me out of all activity for a week. Half of my BCs are just entering dormancy. The other half with Batman/Robin and the twin are still growing. I think winter trim and wiring can wait a little longer.
View attachment 520416
View attachment 520417

Hope you feel better soon! I've been fighting an upper respiratory infection for a week and a half and just watering the trees is a chore.

 

[pandacular]

How long out of collection do you wait to wire trees in the winter?

 

[Maiden69]

A bout of severe flu knocked me out of all activity for a week. Half of my BCs are just entering dormancy. The other half with Batman/Robin and the twin are still growing. I think winter trim and wiring can wait a little longer.

Are they normally entering dormancy at this time? Or just late this year?

Here is how the one you sent me looked like last week. It almost lost all the leaves, and since I moved into an apartment it was chopped a few inches below the initial chop that you did... Both my big BC's got chopped, I was not happy, I could have used the top of the bigger one I have for a layer.



My "large" BC

 

[Cajunrider]

Are they normally entering dormancy at this time? Or just late this year?

Here is how the one you sent me looked like last week. It almost lost all the leaves, and since I moved into an apartment it was chopped a few inches below the initial chop that you did... Both my big BC's got chopped, I was not happy, I could have used the top of the bigger one I have for a layer.

View attachment 520609

My "large" BC

View attachment 520610

They are a bit late this year. The ones that are late are the ones that have a big fall flush because I either collected them later in the year or styled and pruned them hard late summer. That was the case of Batman, Robin, and all the trees in those two pictures I posted.

 

[Cajunrider]

Winter wiring 2023
This tree has been rejected by many potential buyers. I wonder if they don’t see what I see. Whatever the reason is, the tree has moved to my keep list.

 

[19Mateo83]

Winter wiring 2023
This tree has been rejected by many potential buyers. I wonder if they don’t see what I see. Whatever the reason is, the tree has moved to my keep list.
View attachment 521421View attachment 521422
View attachment 521423
View attachment 521424

If I would have known you had that it would be in my back yard bedded down for a Carolina winter . That’s a killer trunk!

 

[Cajunrider]

If I would have known you had that it would be in my back yard bedded down for a Carolina winter . That’s a killer trunk!

Yes. Beautiful base, good taper and trunk movement. The rest is immaterial really because the apex and top branches can be changed quickly. The top has a dead section from the bark being injured. I am debating whether to let it grow back and close (estimated 2 years) or to carve it out.

 

[19Mateo83]

Yes. Beautiful base, good taper and trunk movement. The rest is immaterial really because the apex and top branches can be changed quickly. The top has a dead section from the bark being injured. I am debating whether to let it grow back and close (estimated 2 years) or to carve it out.

I think that one would make for a very nice natural, larger scale flat top design with graceful flowing transitions to carry on the graceful movement it has in the trunk.

 

[Cajunrider]

I think that one would make for a very nice natural, larger scale flat top design with graceful flowing transitions to carry on the graceful movement it has in the trunk.

That id the plan.

 

[Cajunrider]

After reviewing a lot of the work done by Randy Bennett, I have decided to experiment with deep dunking on half a dozen of BCs. They will be very healthy BCs that are dunked up to 6" above soil line from April through September. Then I will ease up the pressure on the trees by draining water to soil level.

 

[Cajunrider]

More

 

[Cajunrider]

So I cut a 1” thick wedge out of this BC.
View attachment 509665

Then I pulled the wedge cut closed and wrapped it with electrical vinyl tape sticky side out. I used one guide-wire to keep the cut closed. We will find out if that lives in a week and how well that works in 6 months.
View attachment 509666

Wedge cut update
Tree is healthy. The cut is healing. Tree is allowed to grow freely until summer.