Big Dawn Redwood Stump

Rateeluck

Yamadori
Messages
83
Reaction score
138
Location
Maryland
USDA Zone
7a
This was a bear to dig up. A bit less than 200 pounds. It started from a seedling thinner then a pencil then grew through the pot. After it got 20-25 feet tall I cut it down as it was too close to the house. It's sitting in a 25 gallon pot and there are a few buds on one side.

Is it dead?

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What a monster! I love Dawn Redwoods, definitely keep us posted. @Victorim has a nice one you may be interested in
 
Looks like a fun long term project.

I think, that like the one posted above, you will need to carve a huge jin into it. Good luck sealing that wound up ;)

Have seen some bald cypress with HUGE rolling calluses though, so maybe its possible.
 
There are no ancient dawn redwood trees to use as models to style dawn redwood (Metasequoia) in a naturalistic style. The oldest trees outside of China were planted in the 1940's. I have not seen many photos at all of dawn redwoods in China. The few I've seen have been grainy, black & white and with little detail. No real sense of what they look like in their home habitat.

I have several Metasequoia, of various ages, they are incredibly winter hardy, more so than bald cypress. I find that their growth habit is quite similar to bald cypress. Very upright. They will not submit easily to any "cascade styles". They are very rapid growing. For models from nature I would look to bald cypress. I think you "can't go wrong" if you follow the bald cypress model.

couple photos from a canoe trip I took over a decade ago. Notice the stump that re-grew new trunks. The stump is estimated at over 800 years old, the new trunks are in the 100 to 300 year range.

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There are no ancient dawn redwood trees to use as models to style dawn redwood (Metasequoia) in a naturalistic style. The oldest trees outside of China were planted in the 1940's. I have not seen many photos at all of dawn redwoods in China. The few I've seen have been grainy, black & white and with little detail. No real sense of what they look like in their home habitat.

I have several Metasequoia, of various ages, they are incredibly winter hardy, more so than bald cypress. I find that their growth habit is quite similar to bald cypress. Very upright. They will not submit easily to any "cascade styles". They are very rapid growing. For models from nature I would look to bald cypress. I think you "can't go wrong" if you follow the bald cypress model.

couple photos from a canoe trip I took over a decade ago. Notice the stump that re-grew new trunks. The stump is estimated at over 800 years old, the new trunks are in the 100 to 300 year range.

View attachment 285412 View attachment 285415

Most helpful, thanks!
 
Speaking of similarities between Bald Cypress, (Taxodium) and Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia). I was having trouble keeping a forest planting wet enough through summer, so just as I do for bald cypress, I submerged the pot in a pan of water several inches deep. They thrived the rest of the summer.

At Dawes Arboretum, near Columbus Ohio, they have a dawn redwood planted at the shore of a pond, and to the casual eye, you would think it was a bald cypress. Only thing missing was knees. But the tree had expanded, growing a massive nebari that spread both uphill onto dry ground and downhill into the pond. At least half the root system seemed to be under water in the pond. It looks healthy as can be, branches, foliage, equally distributed around the trunk. Which means roots in the pond were healthy and feeding that side of the tree. It was not a small tree, over 50 feet tall. Just a for what it is worth observation.

I'm not saying Metasequoia always want to be partially submerged, just that especially in the heat of summer it seemed to help. For the time being, I will keep them as "normal trees" with pots on the benches from late summer through spring. But for now, as heat of summer approaches, I will set my dawn redwoods in shallow basins of water to keep them wet enough.
 
I dug this beast out of my teachers garden last year .

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He said they grow like weeds and as its spring here it has started to wake up .

Edit . Ive just noticed the tree looks like its showing you a dirty bottom . Maybe i should make a few small cuts on those legs and cover with medium .
 
think you've inspired me to airlayer my redwood. As far as advice goes, I think it's pretty obvious this will need to be carved up pretty hard.
 
A year later, this guy is still kicking. The dead bark peeled off. I sprayed with lime sulfur before the buds broke.

Is it okay to carve whenever or a certain time of year is best? It's dead wood so I figure it shouldn't matter. Plan to repot next year.

Cheers

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You grew this from a sapling in the ground? It’s looking good!
Yes sir, thank you! It was just a little sprig about half the size of a pencil and grew through the pot. It's about 15 years old now, I dug it out of the ground last spring.
 
Looks like you should be able to carve away on the dead wood to your heart's content. Living wood depending on your design...
cheers
DSD sends
 
awesome. i got a amberglow redwood recently and up potted it and keeping it well watered. might but a non-draining pan under it so water collects in it. also, i have heard these types of trees dont like full sun, so i will probably put it with some maples i plan on protecting from some crazy afternoon sun my garden gets.
 
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