Bald Cypress III
This Bald Cypress (BC) was grown from seed. The earliest picture that I have of it is from 2014, it looks to be about three or four years old then, but I can't be sure. I hope to create a realistic flat-top style out of it, not one of those that is created from a stump that was dug up out of the swamp that someone has grown an osprey nest-looking group of branches on top, but a realistic graceful flat-top that is seen in the Mobile River delta in the Heart of Dixie. I will be updating this project as it progresses, so check back from time to time if you want to follow along.
Here is the picture from 2014, it doesn't look like much, and the photography is awful:
Here is the picture from 2014, it doesn't look like much, and the photography is awful:
I failed to take pictures of it in 2015, I wasn't that good about documenting my trees with photos and notes back then. In March of 2016 it got a repot and a chop; the last picture is how it looked in July 2016. This is how it went:
In the Spring (March) of 2017, I decided that I did not like how the trunk was looking and was unhappy with the chop I had done earlier; it should have been chopped lower. After looking at it for a while, I decided to chop it lower and did. BC are tough, it will bounce back with fury.
By June, it had put out a lot of new growth and had produced a shoot that was in a good position to become the new leader. The top of the trunk was sloped and sealed.
The new leader took off and really thickened in just a month. The callous had also started to nicely roll over the wound.
By October, the wound was half way closed. Bald cypress are beasts!
I did not take many pictures in 2018, I was just basically letting it grow out and letting the new leader thicken to close the wound. Which it did, by September 2018, the wound was completely closed and it only took one year to do it. I plan to continue to let it grow until it thickens enough to become section of the trunk.
Bald cypress put on a surge of trunk thickening and root growth at the end of the summer. You can see it as "splits" in the trunk covered with new bark. The new bark will be lighter in color than the older bark and is easy to spot. If you haven't potted recently, the root growth can push the tree above the rim of the pot.
