Interesting sequoias

I am approaching six month mark with my Sequoia growing experiment. Here is a snapshot of the most interesting species at this time. I will do a full line up of all surviving plants in the next couple of weeks, marking half year anniversary. 

Opening the line up is the new "dead" seedling #4. #4 was pronounced dead after three quarters of the planting volume fell out of the container during the move from a small PVC tube into a larger one. I decided to keep it because I did not want to deal with throwing it out that day. I watered it plentifully (with about 800ml of water) and let it be till I get time to replace. #4 refused to die and instead started growing after 4 months of stagnation:

#4 April 14, 2013. Germinated October 28 2012. 5 months and two weeks.

#4 remains the oldest surviving species. It went through the period of purple desease and a complete growth halt for over two months after that. After the incident and loosing three quarters of the root it sprang into a quick growth, mostly laterally. The stem looks very healthy and thick, rivaling other best samples. What it lacks in volume and height it compensates in sturdiness of the trunk and heavy root volume directly beneath ground surface, making it one of the most stable species on the patch.

One of my favorite samples is #36. It is not big or tall or anything remarkable at all. It features a gentle curve of the main trunk and the current leader branch on top. It appears to be very stable and is developing as normally as it can be:

#36 April 14, 2013. 5 months.

My younger daughter's sample, which used to live in a special setup so that she could take care of it all by herself has now graduated in a 6" container as well. It is not remarkable in any way except it shot a very ambitious bunch of fresh needles at the very top after the move:

#44 April 14, 2013. 5 months.

This is a picture of death. #121 was a healthy looking sample at the time of the move two weeks ago. I have noticed that it was leaning on one side excessively after the move. I tried correcting it a bit in the next few days after the move and noticed that the root immediately beneath surface was very thin and weak. I kept watching and watered it carefully in the past two weeks. At this point I do not declare it just "dead" like other samples. This is not a prognosis, but rather an illustration of a dead giant sequoia seedling that has not changed the needle color yet:

Notice the extreme thinness of the main trunk. Once that happens, it's all but gone.

Here is another dead seedling, seedling #15. It was declared a victim of the purple desease and pronounced dead. It underwent an extreme surgery at the time where its root was completely exposed and washed with plenty of water. After replanting into new soil (cactus soil), it sprang into vigorous growth resulting in this picture 4 months later:

#15 April 14, 2013. 5 months old.

First half of the "white patch"

Second half of the "white patch":

#38 no longer needs support and in general is becoming straighter. It is no longer number one by any stretch of imagination but is firmly in top five:

#38 April 14, 2013. 4 months and 2 weeks.

#39, the leader that was a top-two leader for 4-6 weeks is slowly loosing its ground to other seedlings, but remains exceptionally strong. Stronger seedlings appear to become straighter or just shoot straight up while adding volume. Still #39 is a highlight of the white patch:

#39 April 14, 2013. 4 months and 2 weeks.