Dormant Pruning A Bald Cypress - January 2025

A few years back, I learned my lesson when it comes to pruning young trees:  don't.  Don't prune them.  Let them go a few years before you touch them at all.  No limb'ing up.  No removing limbs/branches.  If you have to do anything, just clip off the tips of some of the lower branches, but leave them in place - attached to the tree.  

In trying to 'hurry the tree up', I thought I could prune off all the lower branches and focus the energy near the top of the tree - to drive the leader UPWARDS.  Turns out, the tree needs limbs and branches and leaves to collect the necessary energy to grow.  

That 'leave the tree' advice is what I've followed with the Bald Cypress tree that is planted IB2DWs.   It went in the ground in 2018.   

The Bald Cypress is probably my most 'successful tree'.  I planted it as a tiny, pencil-thin pot-grown tree.  Today, it is probably fifteen feet tall and growing.  

Because this is planted IB2DWs, it does...however...need pruning.  The lower limbs are crowding out the perennials planted at the tree's feet.  And, they're starting to get long enough to impact the two driveways.

Last February - (mid-month) - I gave this Bald Cypress it's first pruning.  And, that's when I employed the 'just the tip' method.  I cut about 1/3rd of the bottom branches off and left the branches attached to the trunk.  

This year, I was a little bit more aggressive.  Here, below is what the tree looked like when I started the pruning:

I took a number of limbs off.  And shortened up others.  Below is a look at the material that I clipped off and collected on the driveway:

And, here below is the end product.  You can see the little white-ish dots on the trunk showing where I removed limbs.  I left one large and a couple of smaller limbs ON the tree (the ones that are now the lowest limbs) that I will ultimately remove.  In particular, the lowest limb is pretty sizeable and needs to be removed.  But...with the loppers in my hands...I remembered the lessons I've learned:  Don't over-prune young trees.  So, for this year...I left it in place.  It will need to be removed next year.  

Once this 'needles-out', this will start to look more tree-form - with a canopy that starts about shoulder-height.  

Below is a closer look at the base of the trunk where you can see how many limbs I removed and their size(s).  You can also see the size (diameter) of the lowest limb remaining.   These bottom few will be removed next season.  One other note:  I don't always get the trees that I plant at the RIGHT HEIGHT in the ground with their rootball set properly.  You're *supposed* to be able to see the 'root flare' - where the tree sort-of 'grips' the ground.  This Bald Cypress is showing a little bit of that root flare.  Pretty good.