I recently got a young Bald Cypress that will be growing in a nursery pot via the dunk method for at least the next year or so before trunk chopping, likely two springs from now.
I’m curious if anyone has any guidance on when it would be a good time to take off some of the upper foliage with the intention of developing some cuttings for a future Bald Cypress forest planting next year.
This is all very new to me, so I’m looking for some wisdom before making any drastic changes to the tree, especially considering all the heat we’ve had here in Tennessee recently. Is it best to wait until spring to take cuttings, or should that happen now to give them a chance to get some roots going before winter?
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
p.s. the Bald Cypress work of Bill Butler and John G are what got me hooked on bonsai. I’m incredibly excited to have just started my journey after finding both of their content this summer on YouTube and I plan on adding as many BC to my collection as I can handle.
by radtron
5 Comments
I’m commenting so others with more experience can see your post cause I wanna know as well but my novice opinion is try taking a cutting and see what happens. It’s a pretty big tree. IIRC spring is the best time for cuttings though.
Following also from south louisiana
Mine have responded with serious vigor after a trunk chop. They are very resilient trees.
I have a similar sized cypress planted in the ground with 8 other cypress trees. (My Intention is a forest planting) This has been its first season with me. Next spring, after confirming that it survived winter,I will air layer it short to bring it in line with the other trees, then I’ll have a whole new one to mess around with!
Cuttings and trunk chops definitely work best in the spring when it’s waking up with buds. Trim wildly grow throughout the summer until early fall. Also wire early spring and watch it closely for biting—which happens quickly. Bald cypress respond very well to pruning or chopping. Every leaf basically has potential for a bud. In my experience they bud back better than most species—anywhere there’s a leaf or randomly on branches or on the trunk.