Cypress logs sprouting

[caveman]

 

  

  

  

  JMoore and I sawed some cypress logs back in January.  The logs we did not saw were stored off the ground in the shade until today.  The guy who owned them decided that we should saw the rest of them and dry them for him.  As we were inspecting the logs today, we noticed that they were growing new shoots, several of them.  I have seen plants root in soil or water but never in the air.  By the way, we sawed some beautiful cypress today.
Caveman

[ozarkgem]

nice looking wood. Never sawed cypress. We have a few bald cypress around but I haven't hooked a log yet. Nice looking logs also. Are they always that straight ?

[ellmoe]

  I have had some of the shoots over four feet, no roots, though. ;D

[Magicman]

I have seen plants root in soil or water but never in the air.

They were not rooting in the air.  That was shoots sprouting from the log.


 
That is not uncommon at all.  Here is a Sweetgum log sprouting.

[Kbeitz]

This is a picture of a tree in Dominican Republic that was cut down years ago.
It's growing just fine. Thats the rotted stump in front of my wife.



 



 

[caveman]

These cypress were really nice and straight.  Magicman, the shoots were not really rooting in the air but rather from the log which was not attached to the ground in our cypress.  That was a fine looking sweetgum you were cultivating though. 

Two years ago I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica on a work related trip.  Many fence posts were alive.  Evidently, limbs or trunks of trees were stuck in the ground, similar to the way nursery plants are rooted, and wire was stapled to them. 

On another note, bald cypress will coppice from cut stumps.  I am not aware of other conifers that will do that, although, I suspect sequoias may.

[WDH]

Very few softwoods have adventitious buds that sprout from the stem.  In the pines, you see it in shortleaf and pitch pine.  Cypress is a pretty strange softwood all around  ;D.   

[ellmoe]

Very few softwoods have adventitious buds that sprout from the stem.  In the pines, you see it in shortleaf and pitch pine.  Cypress is a pretty strange softwood all around  ;D.   

   I don't recall ever seeing standing cypress sprout like this, whereas sweetgum do this regularly.  I suppose if a cypress lost its top, adventitious sprouting might occur allowing the tree to survive. It would like a big stump. I did a consulting job in the Big Cypress N. P., where 6-8" dbh trees were cut for "chickees" (Seminole gazebos  ;D  ), at intervals of about five years for each tree. From the sample size I saw all the trees resprouted a new trunk, some had been cut fours times. Just like mowing grass, just longer time interval.

[caveman]

I have seen some old growth cypress stumps that have had up to four trees growing out of coppices from the cut stump.  I saw one last week but I did not take a picture of it.  It was along the Santa Fe River.

As a side note, JMoore and I finished sawing the cypress.  Everything was sawn into 12", 10", 8", 6" and a few 4" boards except for a live edged 5"x 14" mantle that is 8' long.  We got all of the boards stacked into our solar kiln and the fans are running.  We were doing well avoiding metal until one butt log, the one the mantle came out of and one top.  We hit two jacketed bullets, which messed up the set on the blades. 
Caveman

[Carson-saws]

Believe it or not...trees are living, breathing and actually thinking forms of life.  The "sucker growth" is the tree actually trying to survive. 

[SCSawyer]

I've seen willow do the same thing , and have had green locust post sprout back out too, its kinda of pain to have to spray your fence post to stop them from turning into trees !

[carykong]

Old growth Ca. Redwood trees over 100 ft growing in a straight line in the forest. Started out as sprouts from a downed tree long rotted and gone

[Dave H.]

nice cypress logs! ive had pine,cherry and sweet gum sprout like that too.

cherry,see the 2 sprout inbetween the  logs.



 

heres some pine.



 

[WDH]

Pond pine will sprout, too. 

[caveman]

If I dig through the slab pile and find slabs that have the sprouts what are the chances they will root and eventually become trees if a section of the slab was cut out and placed in the wet sand?  It has been incredibly humid here the past few days and I think they are still green.  I was considering planting them in the shade near my pond, just as an experiment.
Caveman