First Bald Cypress Fruit - September 2022

Four years.  That's how long it took for our Bald Cypress tree to go from a thin, wispy nursery pot tree to a mature-enough tree to bear fruit.  I bought this small tree at the orange Big Box Nursery back in September of 2018.  I planted it in the IB2DWs section and followed Ralph Snodsmith's advice by giving it a "Five Dollar Hole" and hoped for the best.  By Fall of 2020 (two years after planting), we were seeing plenty of needle growth.  Same with a year later (September 2021) when the tree seemed to have 'leaped' up.  

Just earlier this month, I captured the caliper dimension (6" from root flare) at 3.47".  Up from 1.21" in February of 2020.  

This tree is CLEARLY at the head of the class in terms of all of the plantings we've made of small trees.  It is growing tall and wide.  And is likely getting ready for the first real limb'ing up of the tree as it begins to encroach on driveways.  (remember...it is located IB2DWs after all)

But this week I spotted something new:  a Bald Cypress fruit.  Or, perhaps I should call this a cone.  There's just one (so far), but I can't help but read this as a sign of a healthy, maturing tree.  See below for a photo of the round cone that is about 2/3rds of the way up the tree:

Earlier this month, I mentioned that I had grabbed a few of these cones off of trees in a park and hoped to try to keep them overwinter in the fridge to stratifying them.  As for this one on our tree, I'm going to just leave it alone this year.  If we get more next year and I have *any* luck with the acorns and seeds that I recently collected, then I'll harvest my own and see if I can get the tree to reproduce.