I had talked to a local nursery guy yrs ago about tip rooting the leader and he said that rooting an NIP leader he thought would be almost impossible without PERFECT conditions, not sure what that is, or even if there was if that would matter. I tried rooting three leaders once that grew after cutting the original one and nothing rooted after a month or so, they would just die. And he also stated that if you tried rooting a cutting of a side branch, that it would continue to grow like a "side" branch, that it would continue to grow "sideways" not vertical. I guess if you wanted to start over, you can either try air layering, buy a new smaller NIP, or grow another one from seed. Billy Rae

hi i would suggest.. that seed production is in it genetics .. and there is nothing you can do about it.. short of getting rid of the tree ... in fact.. some might suggest .. that stressing it.. in any way.. such as reducing water.. might only make it produce more seed ... your complaint .. reminds me of my complaints about maple tree seed droppings.. gumballs from gum trees.. etc ... time to get out the shop vac.. or a lawn vacuum ... or get rid of the tree ... which i bet you dont want to do ... BTW.. they are house plants here ... i have never seen one seed/cone ... ken

Don't plant it within 100 feet of anything you care about. It's not invasive, but they're extremely brittle. One across the street came down in a mild March thunderstorm - not a hurricane - a couple years ago, crushing my boyfriend's car. The storm snapped it off at 10 feet above the ground. The ten-foot stump finally came down in a thunderstorm a few months ago, taking out a neighbor's fence. (these were planted in the right-of-way and the whole neighborhood had to beg the city to take its twin out.) They also tend to get kind of scraggly looking as they get taller. They don't keep that pretty conical shape down here. And because they get so tall, taking one out can require a tree guy with a cherry picker to top it several times in order to get rid of it without endangering nearby houses (had to do that in another house years ago, it's expensive.) I'd advise against anyone down here planting them. I know Geico would.

Well, I'm only guessing, but there's a long row of them growing at Manly in Sydney (NSW) by the beach and except for a few years ago when many were suffering from the effects of wind born pollution - from memory I think it was soap suds from a sewage outlet which apparently broke down their resistance to salt sea-spray. Other than that they've thrived despite pavement and millions of tourists feet over the years compressing the ground around them. They are around 100 years or more old and (conservatively) would be touching 80 to 100 feet or more. I would think all you have to be concerned about is weather - in the US they may not be accustomed to severe winters. If they appear to be growing ok, (and you have the space) just let 'em keep on keeping on. 'Google Earth', by the way, should highlight the Manly ones for you.