Content
- The bald cypress - a bonsai with a distinctive autumn color
- Location and substrate
- Pouring and fertilizing
- Cutting and wire / molding
- repotting
- Tips
The bald cypress is perfect as a bonsai
The bald cypress - a bonsai with a distinctive autumn color
The Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) is native to the marshy Everglades in the southern United States and botanically belongs to the sequoia trees.The up to 35 meters high and extremely durable tree was already widespread in the Jurassic about 200 million years ago. The robust bald cypress is ideal for training for bonsai.
Location and substrate
If possible, keep your bald cypress outdoors all year round, as the tree needs plenty of sun and air. In addition, this bonsai is quite hardy, but should be provided with a light winter protection (eg foliage, brushwood) and placed in a sheltered place. The substrate is a moist, loamy soil that stores water well. Waterlogging does not bother the bald cypress as a resident of the Everglades, quite the opposite: a place is best suited directly on or even in the water, for example in the garden pond.
Pouring and fertilizing
Bald cypress should always be kept moist and should not dry out. The substrate should be best mossed or mulched to counteract dehydration. Therefore, the bonsai should always be poured abundantly and placed in the summer in a shallow bowl of water. When pouring, use rainwater that is as low in lime as possible and spray over the whole plant. Otherwise, the tree will be supplied with a liquid organic based Bonsai fertilizer during the growing season.
Cutting and wire / molding
For the typical bonsai, branches, twigs and shoots should be cut approximately every six to eight weeks between May and September. The desired growth form is achieved by the wire with aluminum wire, but you should be quite careful with the bald cypress. The branches are quite fragile and therefore can not be worked too hard. Remove the wire at the latest in the middle of May, otherwise the incipient growth in thickness will result in unsightly marks on the branches and twigs.
repotting
The bald cypress grows quite slowly and therefore only needs to be repotted every three years. The roots should be trimmed to maintain the balance between crown and root growth. The ideal planter is in its circumference about two-thirds as large as the tree is high. The right time for repotting is spring, although you can still implement the tree in September.
Tips
Bald cypresses are very suitable for bonsai not only because of their appearance, but also because of their robustness. Fungal diseases and pests are very rare.