2013 End of year report

One year, 1000 seeds and 225 seedlings later, we have 38 surviving sequoias.

Out of thirty eight, eighteen reached medium-term survivability (MTS) stage and are currently placed on the "white patch" in 6"-wide, 24"-tall PVC tubes. Out of eighteen MTS seedlings on the white patch, eleven reached long-term survivability (LTS) stage characterized by both large volume of lateral branches and overall height of at least 5". Five out of eleven LTS have a dominant lead (LTS+), which is at least 5"-tall on its own and is clearly separated from other branches. Since the target is 20 sequoias for eventual planting outside, the brown patch (BP) with starter seedlings has been replenished from germination batches of about 200 seeds in the last 3 months.

• BP or better: 38 (all surviving)
• MTS or better: 18
• LTS or better: 11
• LTS+: 5 (best)

BP representatives:

December 28, 2013.

MTS representative. 3-5" tall, trunk shows hard brown bark at the base to about 1" of height, no significant branch volume, i.e. smaller than diameter of container:

#112, December 28, 2013. 11 month old.

LTS representative. 5"+ tall, trunk shows significant hard brown bark to 2", significant branch volume beyond 6" container rim:

#42, December 28, 2013. 1 year and 1 month old.

LTS+ representative. 8-10" tall, brown trunk to 3" followed by a strong lead, large branch volume with branches hanging down from the container rim:

#104, December 28, 2013. 1 year old.

Once seedlings reach LTS stage, only extreme environmental factors can kill them. Last extinction phase happened when all sequoias were left outside in extreme heat of 100-105F, which lasted for 3 days. About half of the MTS and 20% of LTS died after the event. None of the LTS+ (which had 3-5" leads at the time) perished. 

LTS and LTS+ have one feature in common: very loose soil. There are several MTS that still have denser soil but show clear signs of decline. They are not expected to survive.

MTS with heavy soil representative:

#106, December 28, 2013. 1 year old.

To address the apparent role of soil, last five MTS were planted in 6"-wide containers with addition of 1-1.5" river rock throughout the volume at 6-8" interval and a 2" bed of pure rock at the bottom of the containers.  The problem with having just very loose soil is the gradual compression of the soil and plants getting lower inside the tube as time passes. Trunk base of several LTS samples is now 4" below the top rim of the containers, making it difficult to apply water and fertilizer.

MTS planting with river rock:

#111, December 28, 2013. 11 month old. River rock was added throughout container to improve drainage. Note that rock and perlite in this picture were mixed with cactus soil that was poured on top. This picture may be potentially misleading to indicate that there were layers of pure rock and perlite throughout the volume, which was not the case.

MTS planted in such a fashion have strong structural support allowing formation of a pronounced hill and a moat around the base, without eventual sagging of the plant down the container. This allows for water and fertilizer to be applied around the seedlings and simplifies carrying for the plants:

#118, December 28, 2013. 11 month old.

With river rock added the containers are much heavier than the successful LTS, but the hypothesis is that dramatically increased drainage with be beneficial to the sequoias.

In addition to the seedlings that are growing from seeds, my wife has purchased a 1 year old sequoia, which was grown and shipped from California. I planted it in one of the 6" containers alongside other seedlings. This sample has much more yellow color, compared to the bluish color sequoias that were growing in Iowa:

#CA 1,  December 28, 2013. Approximately 1 year old.

  The same soil technique with river rock was used for planting of the #CA 1.

Happy New Year!

Green Christmas

Second Sequoia Christmas is here! The experiment is going strong, with about ten trees growing vigorously, another five doing average and another five in various stages of decline. Another twenty or so young seedlings are in the "pipeline" as well.

Tallest ones are #110 and #72, standing just shy of 10". Another five or so are between 5" and 9".

Sequoias and Bitcoins

Since the white patch needed patching with a few more samples I started a new germination run. The idea was to keep a solid influx of new seedlings.

This time I decided not to measure the number of seeds exactly, unlike previous times when I started with 100. I threw a number of seeds that looked about the same quantity on a wet paper filter second week of October 2013. Today I counted all germinated and non-germinated seeds with this cycle now being complete and no new germinations anticipated.

The tally is as follows: 25 out of 78 now stand with green leaves. I also started moving October 25 geminations into 3" containers.

New batch Fall 2013

Just for fun, I placed current Bitcoin price in the same shot :) Let's see what grows faster and longer term.

White patch is complete again, sort of

I have moved the last seedling into 6" container today, #111. I will now have to decide which one is COMPLETELY dead before moving any more.

I have used lightest soil to date with #111, with plenty of perlite and  small river rock. here is a view of the top two inches of the container before I filled it with more cactus soil and perlite:

I also placed it even higher than previous samples in the container to avoid the trunk being exposed to water:

#111 November 10, 2013 at 10 months.

The brown patch looks extremely healthy with vast majority of the seedlings liking careful water management:

New batch happy update

The new batch is doing surprisingly well. First of all, the germination rate was on a higher end with 21 out of 80, with a few more coming, pushing it towards 30%. Not exceptional but really healthy.

Second of all, daily watering and occasional spray of chlorothalonil seem to work very well. I look for areas near the root for signs of dryness. If it does not look somewhat wet (dark) then I inject 5 ml of water. It's a bit of a fuzzy science but works well so far.

Out of 21 germinated in the last 10 days, 12 are confirmed to form seedlings:

It's actually even  better than that - only one germinated seed has clearly failed to form into a seedling. There is a total of 20 viable samples at this time.

October Update

I moved two backup plants to the 6" containers. A few more sequoias died and currently I am running short of the target twenty by two.

I am moving these sequoias into much looser soil. For #71 I added a couple dozen 1.5" river rock across the length of the tube, mixing them with soil rich with perlite.

#71 October 27, 2013 at 11 months.

#71 being moved from 3" to 6" container. River rock was sprinkled through entire container volume.

#118 was placed substantially higher than previous samples, with the beginning of the trunk almost at the top edge of container. 

#118 October 27, 2013 at 9 months.

The tree sits on a mini-hill, so that when water is added, it goes around the trunk but never touches it. All these measures are directed to let water flow through and around, rather than subject any part of sequoias to standing water. 

Both #71 and #118 had substantial amount of perlite added, probably one quarter to one fifth by volume. As already mentioned, to further increase draining, #71 had river rock added.

#202, which was described as "doing exceptionally well" during last update, has turned grey exceptionally quickly and is on the way to dying:

A few dozen new seeds are in a germination container. 

October 2013 germinations.

Previous attempt in early Fall ended badly with all 16 seedlings perishing to white mold. I used potting soil rather than new seedling soil and they all died very quickly. The newly germinated seeds are in special seedling soil and are treated very carefully. They are checked twice a day for proper moister around the seeds without being soaking wet. They are also checked for signs of mold. Periodic drops of chlorothalinol are also applied on and around the seeds. There are currently 8 new seedlings and probably 5-6 will come from the current germination batch. 

Finally, all sequoias moved to the basement for winter:

White Patch October 2013.

Fall 2013 Update

The project is going strong. Many beautiful survivors and a few dead giant baby sequoias.

#104, one of the strongest. 9 months old.

At this time there are 24 still standing, with 3 unlikely to survive. It is time to replenish the backup patch with some new germinations. Here is a full line-up of the survivors plus a few sequoias on the way to their death.

The oldest survivor is #4 has gone through thick and thin, being sick and then magically recovering. This time it's in the grips of brown fungus that proved to be lethal to its siblings.

#4 September 29, 2013. 11 months old.

#15 is doing very well and seems to be the oldest sample standing by the Fall end.

#15 September 29, 2013

#24 is fine.

#24

#31 is somewhat above average.

#31

#33 is definitely above average with a strong core leading trunk-branch,

#33

#34 is one of the best with a very strong lead.

#34

#36 is on the way out. I tried pruning lower branches that were turning brown a few weeks ago but it does not seem to be helping.

#36

#38 is very bushy with no particular lead.

#38

#39 is doing okay but with no strong leads.

#39

#41 has a strong central lead but lower branches started to pick up a lot of brown.

#41

#42 remains undecided what it wants to do, bushy, a few potential central leads but dormant so far.

#42

#59 is almost dead. I applied another gigantic dose of chlothanitol but there is very little hope at this time.

#59

#63 is an experimental sample. About 6 weeks ago I removed three or four large branches at the bottom leaving 3-4 central ones. So far it looks like it's growing healthily but not exceptionally.

#63

A backup patch contains healthy smaller samples.

#65, #71, #111, #112, #118

#72 is arguably the best sample, maintaing its lead for several months now.

#72

#104 was growing fast, approaching best samples.

#104

#106 moved into the 6" container last week from the backup patch. It remains small, compact and looking very healthy.

#106

#108 is also a new occupant of the 6" containers.

#108

#110 is very much dead. I will be replacing it in the next couple of weeks.

#110

The youngest sample #202 is doing exceptionally well.

#202

What's going on with roots

A few weeks ago I started noticing a phenomenon near the ground level of the trunks. Thin dark hair-like structures were forming extending from the trunk. They looked very much like dead strings, being thin and seemingly dry. Eventually I began to realize that that was not the case - they are very much alive and a part of the growing sequoias.

Here is a close up on the #4, where these hairlike roots clearly started forming a web, which is now extending almost all the way into the soil:

#4 July 28, 2013

And here is even more magnification:

it appears, these are the new roots. They are extremely fragile, but I think in a few weeks they will form into full blown support structures.

All samples in 6" containers are doing fine. Several sequoias became extremely bushy. I decided to do an experiment with one of them by removing lower branches, leaving just a few top branches:

#63 July 28, 2013. Lower branches removed.

#202 is the youngest sample, which grows very well, outgrowing the majority of older samples:

#202 July 28, 2013

New place

The sequoias have moved!

This is many a year journey for the small giant trees. We have moved to a temporary house for the next 5-7 years and sequoias are now adjusting to the new quarters. They will spend the summer and the fall on the deck. It feels way more natural to have them at this new location, surrounded by the woods:

White patch July 4, 2013

I have prepared their new winter location in the basement of the house.

This summer in Iowa has been rainy and not very hot. Temperatures in the last couple weeks since the move were in 75-85F range. Occasionally the temperature on the deck jumps to 90-95F but that's for a thermometer, not necessarily the trees themselves. There is at least some breeze at all times in Iowa and I am not very concerned about over heating.

I started taking some sequoias outside for a few hours a day (they are quite heavy, could not do all). Then there was a cooler and cloudy period for a few days. At the beginning of that period, I dragged all of them out on the deck. It was about a week of moderate sun (less than 30%) and 75-80F. I decided that it was enough for them to adjust to the conditions outside.

The picture above serves as a proof that that assumption was fine. All of the trees immediately shot new, lighter/greener needles within a week.

The big difference from the basement caring to the outside caring for the trees was application of water. In the basement with artificial lights and an extremely well controlled temperature (75F) the plants were getting 300ml of water every two weeks. With temperatures outside potentially shooting to 100F+ and on average being between 80F and 90F during the day, sequoias can suck a LOT of moisture from the  soil based on what I read on the Internet.

My current technique is to measure moisture level at 4" depth and as soon as it falls below 3, apply 300ml of water.

Here is a few close ups.

Oldest one, #4. Getting some healthy growth after months of hibernation:

#4 July 4, 2013

#31 has picked up a huge volume:

#31 July 4, 2013

As well as did #38:

#38 July 4, 2013

#44, my youngest daughter's plant is doing well. It's balanced in the sense that is has significant volume and reasonable height. It is also one of the symmetrical samples:

#44 July 4, 2013

The giant among giants is #72. It is growing way ahead of everything else on the patch. It currently stands at 10" tall.

#72 July 4, 2013

Another extremely healthy sample is #101. Very symmetrical and well developed:

#101 July 4, 2013

One of the fastest growing plants is #110:

#110 July 4, 2013

And finally a close up to the "backup"patch. One is going to replace a fallen sample in a 6" tube some time this week: