From Seed Division: Dingus's Mixed Redwood Forest

[LittleDingus]

I didn't learn about this contest until after I had already started some from seed forest projects One of them is already being documented here

[Dingus] Dawn Redwood (shohin) #1

Many of the veterans will find this progression ridiculous...that's fine. It kind of is :D But I'm also bored and am in the habit of starting much of my "from seed" in the fall anyway so I'm going for it! The last time I started a batch of metasequoia glyptostroboides seed was 2 years...

www.bonsainut.com

in case anyone wants to follow along. That project will not be entered into this contest.

The project I am entering stretches the rules a little. Technically, it was started one month too early. I'm going to risk it...not like it's going to win anyway I do have one other from seed forest project under way. That one is a set of chinquapin acorns currently sitting out in the yard letting winter do its thing I'm not sure I'm going to enter that one...but maybe???

This project started because I had a fair amount of "extra" seed from all 3 redwood varieties with nothing planned for it. I've seen a couple places in California where all 3 species are planted together in the ground. Granted, the dawn redwoods were struggling a bit compared to the other two, but it does demonstrate there is a climate where all 3 can survive together! So, why not try it in a pot??

To get started, I soaked seed from each variety: sequoia sempervirens, sequoiadendron giganteum, and metasequoia glyptostroboides in separate dishes for 24 hours. These are the dawn redwood seeds.



While they were soaking, I prepared a couple of pots. One is the intended long term pot for the forest. The other is a 10" plastic drip tray that will be spares to use wherever I get the urge to use them. The pots were prepared with a subsoil of NAPA 8822 and fir bark.

Normally people suggest planting separately and building the forest later when the individuals are large enough. I do not intend to let these trees grow very large. My goal with this forest is to exaggerate the tree height and hopefully the forest density. I'd like an undergrowth of moss and to try and build a rainforesty feel. I'm not too worried about taper and caliper as I'm looking for more of a far-field view of a dense forest. Because of that, I'm sowing directly into what I hope will be the long term pot.



The subsoil was top dressed with coconut coir...just enough to cover the entire surface.



Redwood seeds need light to germinate. They also need to lift their heads out of the soil...the seed coat stays on as the initial "trunk" extends. If they are planted too deep or in too heavy a soil, they have trouble lifting themselves up.

In the main pot, I placed bits of different colored tooth picks to help identify the seedlings when they first sprout. Generally, they are easy enough to identify at all stages, but this should make it easier to know where to expect them to sprout.



It also helped with tracking how many of each seed got planted in the main planting. I planted 20 seeds from each species in the main pot. They look uniformly spaced but germination rates will not be 100%. I've typically gotten 60-70% germination from the dawns and closer to 40-50% from the other two. They would mostly be too close if they all came in anyway. I figured enough would not germinate and they would germinate randomly enough that I would end up with a more natural spacing. Plus, once they grow a bit, I can move them around/fill in with the spares, etc...if needed.

All 3 species were planted under a dusting of coconut coir. The pots were put under one of my grow light setups. This setup is in a south east facing widow. That location gets LED light for 14 hours per day plus 3-4 hours of direct sun per day during most of the winter.



The humidity dome is off for the picture, but it is on most of the time otherwise. The LED lights from the shelf below provide a gentle bottom heat. I have a temp/humidity meter in this setup. When it is sunny outside, temps can climb to the high 70F during the day and drop to mid to upper 60F during the night. Seeds started germinating after about a week.

Here is a sequoia just starting to lift its head out of the dirt. This is one of the reasons surface of just under the surface sowing is important. The seed coat is a large clunky bitch to be dragging through too heavy of a soil!



For the main pot, I placed individual seeds next to markers to keep track of what I was doing. For the "overflow" pot, I mixed all the seed together and basically dumped them in trying to scatter them over the entire tray. These will be used for filling in or maybe even as individual trees if they aren't needed elsewhere.

Here are some gratuitous baby photos



So far it looks like there are going to be significantly more sequoia than the other two species. Also, for whatever reason, only one half of the main pot seems to have germinated and that with uncharacteristically low germination rates for seed from this source (Sheffield's). I'm now out of dawn redwood seed, but I still have 25+ seeds for each of the other two. I'm hoping to visit family for a few days around Christmas (we've all been quaranteening and will continue to do so during and after the visit) which has me a little worried about someone maintaining these baby trees while I'm gone. We'll see where they are at after I return. I may go ahead and sow the rest of what I have in these pots to get rid of them.

 

[Gabler]

I doubt anyone will care that you started your seeds a month early. It's not like it's going to add a whole extra growing season. Over several years, it won't make much difference. I'm not familiar with redwoods, so I'm looking forward to seeing the development here.

 

[Kanorin]

I doubt anyone will care that you started your seeds a month early. It's not like it's going to add a whole extra growing season. Over several years, it won't make much difference. I'm not familiar with redwoods, so I'm looking forward to seeing the development here.

Yeah, it's not going to make much difference, but I'll just ask if/when @LittleDingus submits this for a final entry in 8 years, submit it a month early. Otherwise it could be a slippery slope of successive saying yes to allowing seeds planted in August 2020, April 2020, Sep 2019, May 1986, etc.

 

[LittleDingus]

Yeah, it's not going to make much difference, but I'll just ask if/when @LittleDingus submits this for a final entry in 8 years, submit it a month early. Otherwise it could be a slippery slope of successive saying yes to allowing seeds planted in August 2020, April 2020, Sep 2019, May 1986, etc.

"If" is a very strong possibility. If there is any question what-so-ever, I won't submit...I don't have a use for fake internet points anyway

It's more likely this project will never get finished though...it's got an upfill battle for many reasons!

My biggest concern is that we're planning a move to a zone colder in a year or three. Maintaining a common climate all 3 species can survive in is tough enough as it is. Here in 6b, all three can weather a short 3-4 months in the garage to get through the winter no problem...at least they have for the past few winters with no apparent loss of vigor. That will need to extend to 5 months or so where we're hoping to move in the future Separate trees that I can move to individual microclimates I'm hoping to still be able to manage. A forest will have to move as a unit. But, those problems aren't here yet

For now, this was just a way to use up some of my store of seed before they lost viability

Thus far, I'm unhappy with the main planting



For some reason, germination rates are low and mostly on one side of the pot?? I'm not sure what that's about...but I suspect I covered the seed too deep and especially on one half of the pot. I had "lightly sprinkled" coir over everything after sowing and it may have gotten too deep in spots.

By contrast, I got much better germination rates in the "overflow" pot.



Even though there were less seed and the seed was just poured on top and raked around a little, the overflow pot has more sprouts! So, maybe +1 for needing light to germinate? I've always suspected people who complained of low germination rates of redwood seed of planting too deeply. I've usually surface sown with perhaps a very light dusting and had much higher germination rates that I would have expected given the claims.

I think I have enough seed left for one small sowing. I was going to wait until after the new year and fill in some spots in the main planting, but maybe I'll run a "depth of sowing" experiment instead?? We'll see. I'm going to want to reposition trees at some point anyway so maybe there is more value in the experiment than in saving space...

To finish this rather wordy update, this is one of the reasons I plant most my seed inside in the fall against traditional advice...Since most everything else is dormant and doesn't need as much on my attention, I have more time to focus and watch seedlings grow! Except for the coldest parts of winter, I have a nice spot that gets a few hours of direct natural sun per day, I have decent lights to supplement as needed, and I can maintain temps between 70F and 80F with gentle bottom heat...a very reasonable germination environment

Here is a coast redwood seedling. These look very similar to dawn redwood seedlings. The easiest way for me to tell them apart is the coast redwoods generally have a redish "trunk" at this stage while the dawn redwoods have a light green "trunk".



A dawn redwood for comparison. And I just realized that the trunk is in shadow and so the color difference between it and the coastal might not be as obvious as it is in person



And finally, a sequoia. The sequoia are distinctive. They start with 4 or sometimes 5 more needle like cotyledons and have a much more distinctive blueish cast to their foliage. Their young trunks are typically deep red...much darker than the other two.



Enjoy!

...or don't...

the internet is open to all

 

[LittleDingus]

I'm not happy with the number of dawn redwoods that have germinated at this point. Sheffield's is still out of dawn redwood seed So I ordered some from another vendor. I do not have another trusted vendor for dawn redwood seeds. So many people sell them and so many people have reported low germination rates that I'm uncomfortable with anyone other than Sheffield's whom I've always had decent germination rates from. I ended up getting these:



At least if they are a scam, they were a cheap scam! 1000 seeds for the same price others were selling 25 seeds for.

I soaked a small pile in water for 24 hours...drained the water and soaked in fresh water for another 24 hours. Today I planted them out. It's currently 30F and snowing outside, but my thermometer on the same shelf as these plantings is still claiming 70F. When it's sunny, it still gets up to 75F on this shelf.

This time I surface sowed the seeds only. If you look closely, you can find some on the surface.



The main planting in the nice pot will be under a humidity dome. I don't have a good way to dome the overflow planting or I would.

I want to sow some more coast and sequoia as well, but I'll give these seeds a couple weeks to germinate first. I didn't think about it first, but the trees in the overflow pot are large enough I can safely move them if I'm careful. I should have moved them into the main planting then I could have sown entirely into a secondary pot instead.

 

[LittleDingus]

I didn't get many to germinate out of that last sewing of dawn redwoods. I think I got 2 in the main planting that then damped off and maybe 2-3 in the overflow planting that may/may not make it.

I wanted to reclaim some growing space on my light shelf so this morning I moved what was in the overflow planting into the main planting so all these trees are in one pot.

Here's what I started with:



I moved everybody from the round planter into the main planting and ended up with this:



I'm not going to pretend that everything I moved over is going to survive. I think many of them will, but I'm sure some will die off. They are still small enough to fit under the humidity dome which figured into the calculus for moving them now. Keeping the dome on for a week or two should help. The other term to the equation is that now I get a section of my light shelf back for another project There are multiple of each species growing right now...that's good enough to get started. We'll see where we are in a few months in terms of numbers. As it stands now, I probably have too many sequoia and maybe not enough dawns, but we'll see. It's hard enough to tell the dawn redwoods from the coastal redwoods at this stage that I didn't bother trying to get a count...

We've started the slow climb out of winter now. We should start seeing lots of growth soon

 

[LittleDingus]

Cloudy, rainy few days here so I'm taking the opportunity to start acclimating my mixed redwoods to the outside world.



When moving seedlings from under lights to outside, I try to time it for a rainy/overcast period if I can. That helps keep the direct sun off them and the humidity is higher which can help keep them from burning and drying out from the sudden change in environment. The high and dry winds we tend to get here in the early spring are exceptionally problematic

I also try to place them somewhere where they will be shaded most of the time when the clouds do lift. Here, I've placed them under some cork oaks which will shade them most of the day. The cork oaks are the denser canopy to the left (south) of the seedlings. If you look carefully at the tree to the right of the seedlings, you can see that I took no such precautions moving my live oaks from under lights out into the bright outdoors! They got bleached pretty good! They're budding like mad now though...so they'll be ok in a month or two.

I was quite surprised that, after moving a dozen plus seedlings from my overflow pot into this pot that I only lost 2 due to the transfer. As of today, I have 12 coastal redwoods, 11 sequoia but only 2 dawns I'm sure I'll be sewing some more dawns for this planting before too long. We'll see how many of the others I lose moving them from their comfy life in a warm house under lights out into the cruel outdoors!

 

[LittleDingus]

The different redwoods are significantly easier to identify now



But I'm having a dickens of a year with growing dawn redwood seeds! One of my worst years in a long time starting these guys from seed I started with a lower than normal germination rate for them...to the point I only had 2 trees in this pot when I moved it outside!

Then, my cat got out onto the deck and decided to chew on them

Now, neither are looking very healthy.



The cool spring weather isn't helping them out either. I'll need to start some more seed to try and back fill a couple in next spring.

Otherwise, they are filling in nicely!




The challenge will be keeping them small enough that I can have 2-3 of each in that tiny space when all is said and done!

I seem to be able to manage 2' dawn redwoods alright. I have (had, I just tore it up to try and nurture a branch with albinism...I couldn't pass up such a unique opportunity!) a 4 tree forest of them in about half this volume. My 8" shohin sized 5 tree dawn redwood forest has taken a turn for the worse, however I think I pruned too many growth tips while they were too young...plus dawn redwoods are performing really poorly for me in general this year

I'll sort out my dawn redwood issues eventually...I've been growing them at a number of sizes for a long time. I don't have nearly as much experience with sequoia. Even so, I think with their more juniper like needles that if I can manage their tendency to branch drop over winter here, I think they should be manageable in tine sizes. The coast redwoods with their long fronds are my biggest concern. They need to be able to back bud so I can cut them back enough to keep them small. If the fronds are too long, that might limit where I can cut back to and still get good budding for next season's branches.

Anyway, I know I'm aiming for ridiculously small proportions on this one...that's kind of the point! I've got enough larger specimen to try and really push the limits on "tiny" for these guys

 

[LittleDingus]

It keeps growing and growing and...



All the dawn redwoods are dead I'll start some more seed in the fall for a couple of different projects...this one included. I forget what the number of trees minimum this contest allows. I was originally thinking 5-7 small trees. The coastal redwoods are pretty course even at this size, however. I might just settle for 3...but I think the min is 5? Probably I'll aim for whatever the min is to keep in the contest...but maybe I'll just yank this one if it gets to annoying/difficult to maintain.

There are some interesting tiny trunks in there, though!



All 3 of those are sequoia. There's a leaned over coastal too, but it was difficult to photograph and not nearly as interesting.

I've been wanting to pull one or two of those guys out for a while now and see how long I could keep them at mame size I recently received this pot



as a "free gift" with purchase of another pot. It didn't have a drain hole until I put one in it



Today, I was just bored enough to dig up those interesting trunks and see if I could get one into this pot



The first one had a much longer root than I expected! The other two were about what I expected. I opted to put the second 2 into a random pot I had laying around in case I wanted to try something with them in the future. They are a little two tightly twisted to cascade nicely out of that little pot

The one that I kept needed a little wire to straighten out a bit...it turns out one can use wire to straighten trees as well as bend them...who knew?!? I probably should have taken a picture of that process in case it ever comes up again!

Instead, I shoved the tree into the tiny pot:



We'll see what happens.

So...yeah...most of this post has nothing to do with the forest in the contest other than that the forest is still very much alive...but now it is minus 3 sequoia

 

[LittleDingus]

The three sequoia that were removed are still doing well.



I'm really hoping I can keep the cascade one alive in that tiny pot. The other two I don't care so much about but they take up virtually zero space and effort and they are something to hack on to see what they will survive at this tiny size But the one on the left I've come to like and would love to see how it develops.

I've since pulled out 2 coast redwoods as well.



I see that I forgot to document when/how that happened They got shoved into pots I had that were empty. Maybe not appropriate, but I don't like empty pots! They can live in these pots until I find a better use for them

This entire project for me is an experiment in 2 things:

1) Can I keep all 3 species of redwood alive in the same pot? I've been successful in separate pots and separate winter treatments for each species for years...but can I keep them together?

2) Just how small a redwood can I keep alive? I've got a few other projects outside this one to help answer that question. I've got little/no problem at keeping them alive at large sizes. But can I get them into something treelike and living indefinitely below 2'? I'm not sure. They can grow so friggin fast!!! Plus the coast and dawn redwoods have large fronds that make reduction problematic.

I doubt any of these will go back into the forest. But I thought I'd document them anyway just in case. Plus, they are experiment pieces for what can be done on the forest itself.

 

[LittleDingus]

The main forest planting itself has gotten a bit out of control!



There are no dawn redwoods at the moment They all died off very early on for various reasons. They will hopefully be replaced next spring.

The coast redwoods are starting to seriously outpace the sequoia however! The sequoia are starting to be shaded out That will be the biggest issue I think I'll have with this planting. Keeping the 3 species somehow in balance.

I know the "proper" way to grow a bonsai forest is to grow the trunks separately and pick/chose the trunks and how they are combined at "construction" time. That way you can more easily balance the composition...yadda, yadda...I'm not against that approach. I've done it in other compositions myself. Lately, though, I'm more interested in the natural competition and the individual tree's responses to it when grown together. But, it will be a serious challenge maintaining balance here! I'm curious how long I can even manage to keep them alive!

For today, the necessary "fix" was to prune back the coastal redwoods to slow them down and open up access to light for the sequoia. I shopped the tops at the current height of the sequoia. I also trimmed back some of the larger fronds. I really should have done this a couple of weeks ago They are still in active growth and should be for another couple of weeks so hopefully they still have time to set buds for next season. As long as they don't die, I don't care much right now...they can use a little slow down to give the sequoia and replacement dawn redwoods time to catch up. Heck...the dawn redwoods are still seeds

 

[LittleDingus]

My intent for this planting was always to grow all 3 species of redwood in one planting. Unfortunately, zero dawn redwood survived from the initial sowing

I've recently sown a set of dawn redwood seed for a tiny redwood forest also in this challenge

Seedling Division: Dingus' shohin dawn redwood forest

I tend to start much of my seed in the fall. It entertains me to watch them grow through the dead of winter. I have a decent setup for doing this and have been doing it this way for years :D Last year, I started a shohin dawn redwood project just seconds (ok, maybe a month?) before this...

www.bonsainut.com

I got 100% germination from that set of seed! Way more than I needed for that planting



Originally, I was thinking I would start a set of seed to replace the lost dawn redwoods in this planting sometime later this month...but with so many seedlings already on hand, I decided to try and pilfer some of them for various other projects...including, eventually, this one

At this stage, the seedlings have short, single tipped roots:



Some are considerably longer, but none of them have forked by this stage. And none of them have embedded themselves very securely yet...a gentle tug...maybe with a little poke at the soil to help break it up...and they come right out! with some care, it's a simple matter to pluck out the seedlings I didn't want in that shohin planting and move them elsewhere.

In this case, the "elsewhere" is a hollowed out cypress knee I've had a dawn redwood forest in that knee for several years now. I tore it apart this past spring because one of the trees grew an albino mutation and I wanted to do what I could to preserve that branch to see if it would come back. I really liked that planting It was very quick to develop...so this is the start at cypress-knee-forest-#2

What I ended up doing was moving 14 seedlings out of my shohin forest into the cypress knee. Long term, I'd like 5 to regrow that forest. Whatever is left can move over into this planting.

If all goes well, this will document where the dawn redwood replacement trunks came from. If not...I've wasted a lot of typing and will be starting another set of seed in the future...

Assuming all will go as planned, here is the cypress knee filled with miracle grow potting mix.



Miracle grow is a decent seedling mix for these guys. I like DE better for more mature plants, but I've been growing dawn redwoods in miracle grow for a long time and it works fine. I'll need to top dress it with something like NAPA 8822 at some point to keep the fungus gnat infestation down over the winter...but this should be plenty good for a few weeks yet.

I moved 14 freshly germinated seedlings over to this pot by carefully plucking them out of the old planting...a few of the bigger ones were starting to hold pretty well and needed some gentle encouragement to break free. Once plucked, I poked a deep hole in the new soil with a chopstick. I made the hole deep enough and wide enough that I could set the seedling in to about the level where green turned to white on the trunk without breaking the root tip. Then I ever so gently used the stream setting on a water mister to "water in" the seedling so the root was surrounded by dirt again.

In the end, it looked like this:



I've moved them when this young before with great success. Once they start growing "real" (non-cotyledon) leaves the roots are typically more securely attached and may have started branching. They become more risky to move then until they've grown large enough that the root system is pretty significant and can take some damage. Were I to leave them in the small shohin pot until that point, I'd likely have to unpot everything to untangle roots. I'm avoiding that issue by transplanting them now.

My biggest concern is I'm heading out of town for a few days and the people left behind to water my trees aren't as knowledgeable about watering young seedlings I'm hoping to get these under some kind of humidity dome and out of direct sunlight while I'm gone so they don't need watered at all. Otherwise, it's 50/50 whether they get washed out from too much water or dehydrate from too little. We'll see...

For the next day or two, however, they get to sit in the morning sun that streams through the sliding glass door in our kitchen

 

[LittleDingus]

I'm trying to get some updates in on my contest trees while I have a little lull waiting for closing on our next adventure back in Illinois I'm going to try and keep these guys through the move...but I have concerns. I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get a winter space set up for my redwoods and it might be hard to keep up with their care during the moving process. We'll be spread across both Kansas City and the new place near Chicago from December until April. I'm hoping I can keep these guys in KC until closer to April and worry about wintering them over next winter.

I did already kill off the dawn redwood seedlings I had planned for replacing the dawn redwoods that never really got going in this planting. I'll try and start those again in the spring.

But for now, this forest is holding it's own. The coastal redwoods are starting to suffer a bit because they've taken a light frost or two. The next week is supposed to stay above 40F so I'll continue to leave them out...but the next time it looks like we're going to dip below 40F, I'll start doing the 2-step with these.

 

[Kanorin]

Good luck with the move!
I'd offer to help plant-sit for you since I'm about midway between your old and new places, but my cat destroyed several little seedlings that I brought inside last year. This year I'll have to test out some new cat-defense systems.

 

[LittleDingus]

Good luck with the move!
I'd offer to help plant-sit for you since I'm about midway between your old and new places, but my cat destroyed several little seedlings that I brought inside last year. This year I'll have to test out some new cat-defense systems.

Ugh...my cat! She really likes the pokey trees for some reason. I can't keep her off the rain trees even though they have needles that are supposed to protect them! But yeah, she's ripped up a number of seedlings over the years

Our best route to new home is up through Des Moines...not through St. Louis. 8 hours door to door. Likely longer in a moving truck. We're lucky enough to buy before we sell so we'll have the two houses for a couple of month overlap. My wife doesn't start her new job until April...I can work remote. Should be an interesting move!

 

[LittleDingus]

The coastal redwoods took a beating! I moved them from KC to Chicago at the end of February. The final move was a bit hectic and many of the trees on that truck got mixed up and lost track of in the move. I ended up with a good number of trees that I meant to protect in the colder zone remaining outside instead. Chicago is a zone colder than Kansas City...the difference in temps were a problem I had 2 mume cuttings that were starting to swell buds back in warmer KC...they got left in the harsher cold in Chicago for a few nights and now I'm 90% sure they are dead. A couple of maple cuttings that had also starting to leaf out in the warmer zone fared better...I found them early enough to get them protected before their tender growth got killed off.

This pot got left outside in ~0F temps for a couple of days. I found it with the soil frozen solid under a couple of inches of snow. I brought it into the garage to thaw but I was convinced I had killed the coastals. Several of them did lose all their foliage and I was sure I'd be starting them over. But...Surprise! Surprise! They are all now budding out!



In fact, I don't think I lost a single trunk! That adds some anecdotal evidence to my theory that it's not the cold that kills redwoods...it's the dehydration. When the roots freeze, they can't suck up water. But if they thaw before they dehydrate, they can survive. I see similar behavior in my larger sequoia. They take even a hard freeze just fine for a few days...but much longer than that, they start to drop branches.

The sequoia in this planting are all looking really well though!



I took a few minutes to weed the forest and take stock. Apparently my weeding was disturbing this guy's slumber:



He scared the bejeezus out of me! I'm well used to worms...but I've never had one intentionally crawl out of the pot I was working in! Suddenly there was a slimy tentacle waving in my face as I was trying to see under some foliage to pull a weed! He got moved to a different pot for the duration

These trees looks to have survived the move just fine! Others were less fortunate There are still 10 coastal redwood and 6 sequoia trunks in there. Still no dawn redwood...I'll have to start some seed here soon to try and catch them back up.

I'm still not sure how I'll treat these guys this summer. Being that I moved a zone colder...which means about 2 additional months of weather protection!...I might just let them shag out this grow season. I don't want the faster growing coastal redwoods to crowd out the others though. At the end of the day, I'm hoping to keep them ~10" tall. So there is a bit of an edge to balance trying to get all 3 species in some sort of harmony...

 

[Cajunrider]

The coastal redwoods took a beating! I moved them from KC to Chicago at the end of February. The final move was a bit hectic and many of the trees on that truck got mixed up and lost track of in the move. I ended up with a good number of trees that I meant to protect in the colder zone remaining outside instead. Chicago is a zone colder than Kansas City...the difference in temps were a problem I had 2 mume cuttings that were starting to swell buds back in warmer KC...they got left in the harsher cold in Chicago for a few nights and now I'm 90% sure they are dead. A couple of maple cuttings that had also starting to leaf out in the warmer zone fared better...I found them early enough to get them protected before their tender growth got killed off.

This pot got left outside in ~0F temps for a couple of days. I found it with the soil frozen solid under a couple of inches of snow. I brought it into the garage to thaw but I was convinced I had killed the coastals. Several of them did lose all their foliage and I was sure I'd be starting them over. But...Surprise! Surprise! They are all now budding out!

View attachment 427990 View attachment 427992 View attachment 427989

In fact, I don't think I lost a single trunk! That adds some anecdotal evidence to my theory that it's not the cold that kills redwoods...it's the dehydration. When the roots freeze, they can't suck up water. But if they thaw before they dehydrate, they can survive. I see similar behavior in my larger sequoia. They take even a hard freeze just fine for a few days...but much longer than that, they start to drop branches.

The sequoia in this planting are all looking really well though!

View attachment 427991

I took a few minutes to weed the forest and take stock. Apparently my weeding was disturbing this guy's slumber:

View attachment 427993

He scared the bejeezus out of me! I'm well used to worms...but I've never had one intentionally crawl out of the pot I was working in! Suddenly there was a slimy tentacle waving in my face as I was trying to see under some foliage to pull a weed! He got moved to a different pot for the duration

These trees looks to have survived the move just fine! Others were less fortunate There are still 10 coastal redwood and 6 sequoia trunks in there. Still no dawn redwood...I'll have to start some seed here soon to try and catch them back up.

I'm still not sure how I'll treat these guys this summer. Being that I moved a zone colder...which means about 2 additional months of weather protection!...I might just let them shag out this grow season. I don't want the faster growing coastal redwoods to crowd out the others though. At the end of the day, I'm hoping to keep them ~10" tall. So there is a bit of an edge to balance trying to get all 3 species in some sort of harmony...

View attachment 427994

Looking good my friend!

 

[LittleDingus]

Sigh...I am so effing stupid sometimes!

Some would say "all the time"...that's fair...

I mentioned up above in September that

Unfortunately, zero dawn redwood survived from the initial sowing

In my last post I stated

I was convinced I had killed the coastals. Several of them did lose all their foliage and I was sure I'd be starting them over.

I am a dumb shit and should go back and retake Tree Identification 101! Or at least have my forum posting privilidges revoked

To correct the record, what I meant to say was:

"Four dawn redwood survived the initial planting! They lost their foliage over the winter...as expected. Five coastal redwood also survived the initial sowing. They gave me a scare and were looking very ratty after the move. and my poor horticultural practices...but they look to have survived! There are seven sequoia still chillin' from the initial sowing as well. They're just hanging out and don't seem to give a shit about the winter OR the clumsy move! Everyone is starting to bud out now "

For future reference:

Sequoia: Short, prickly needs. Easiest of the 3 redwood varieties to distinguish...even for me.



Coastal Redwood: Notice that the needles are alternate. The frond also has a recognizable shape...though it is more obvious on multi-year old growth.



Dawn Redwood: Notice the opposite needles! Opposite...not alternate! The fronds also have a distinct shape different from coastal redwoods. The color tends to be more bright green on dawn redwoods and more blue green on coastals. But, perhaps their most distinguishing characteristic is that they are the only deciduous redwood.



So, for the record, I have successfully sown all 3 redwood varieties in the same pot and have kept them alive together for almost a year and a half now. Yay me

There are some interesting trunks in there too...



...you know...for year old seedlings that I'm pretending are a big deal I especially like the double rooted trunk. Very swamp-like...fits right in with the mountain trees that grow in temperate rain forests!

Anyway...I needed to set the record straight after realizing my stupidity. My current species tally in this entry is as follows:

Sequoia: 7
Coastal Redwood: 5
Dawn Redwood: 4

A couple of sequoia may get crowded out this season...we'll see. But I no longer have plans to add new dawn redwoods back into this planting!



Cheekiness aside...I am quite happy that some of each survived the initial sowing and my poorly managed move and can continue to grow up together. That was really the challenge I placed on myself for this competition. I know I can keep them all alive individually...now I'd like to see how feasible it is to keep them alive together in the same conditions.