Fall 2014 Line-up

2014 Fall has arrived and with that the quick growth of sequoias slowed down dramatically.

It's unclear why they stopped growing so abruptly: there are occasional showers followed by very warm 80-85F weather with plenty of sun. The leaders added just about half of an inch to an inch over last three weeks. All sequoias look healthy and somewhat adding volume, but vertical growth halted.

Here is a full line up of the trees as they go into the Fall and the Winter.

#15 (18") is the oldest. It has been growing moderately but steadily. It's currently situated somewhat in the shadow of the Brown Patch box, but is doing great in the top 5:

#15 Sept 1, 2014. 1 year and 10 months

#24 (14") is the second oldest surviving tree. It does not grow vertically as well as some of the other giants but what it lacks in height it gains in overall volume. It looks very balanced, so to speak.

#24 Sept 1, 2014. 1 year and 9 months

#31 (18") has never been an exceptional sample but in recent weeks it added height to its volume placing it in top 5: 

#33 (10") is a below average sample that struggles to shoot a leading branch. One branch that looked like it was going for leadership is currently showing signs of disease damage. It has remained in this state for many weeks.

#34 (20.5") Is the current leader with over 3" advantage over next contender. It was growing at an extremely fast pace of 1" per week for almost a month before slowing down. It grew only half an inch in the last three weeks of August.

#38 (12.5") is an average sample showing healthy volume and just above average height tying it for 8-9 place with #39.

#39 (12.5") although one of the oldest has been slow to grow, placing it in the middle of the pack:

#63 (14") is a survivor that saw dramatic branch removal in summer of 2013 to battle brown menace of some kind. It has recovered very well and is just a bit above average placing it in top 10:

#65 (8)" is the weakest tree of the patch compared to its age and overall condition. Only recent additions to the patch are shorter than this 2 year old veteran. It’s one of the four death-list seedlings (along with #112 and #118) that managed to survive. However, it did not completely recover by this time despite a substantial volume it accumulated prior to the decline. #65 is currently the only questionable sample that likely needs to be replaced. It acquired a small partner, similar to the one described in #112 below.

#71 (12") a former “twin” of #72 has never quite reached the status of its twin. It went dormant some time a year ago, barely growing to 3” tall while #72 jumped to over 12” at the same time. However, after the move outside it acclimated exceptionally well and added 6” since the move three months ago.

#72 (16.5") held tallest title for many months before slowing down. It is certainly one of the tallest five trees at this time.

#104 (17") continues to be an exceptionally strong seedling. It is a former early height leader that gave way to other record holders while continuing adding both height and volume at a good pace.

#112 (8.5") is one of the weakest seedlings. In fact it was placed on the death list for removal among four similar samples early this summer after turning gray and losing branches. At that time it acquired a little partner in the form of a germinated seed. In fact there were two seeds placed in June time frame next to the main plant. One of them took root and currently can be seen in the picture below. Due to recent heavy rains it appears that there are signs of  over-watering for the little partner, which turns needles yellow and somewhat bleak.

#118 (10") is one of the four death-list samples. After a near death experience it stabilized better than other surviving three (fourth did not make it). It shot a distinct lead branch, which continues to gain height at a stable pace over last 6 weeks. It’s in the bottom ten at this time but is showing strong positive trend.

#212 (5") is one of the new samples that migrated into a 6” container this past Spring of 2014. An incident occurred in July when a squirrel dug a two-inch deep hole about one inch away from the stem leaving the seedling laying hopelessly on the ground. Upon examination of the root I decided that the damage perhaps was not too extensive to kill the plant. I put it vertically and rearranged the soil to fill in the hole. Since it has been over a month since that event I would say the plant survived.

#213, #214 and #215 are all from the same batch as #212 described above. They all moved from the 3” containers to the new houses within two-week period. All of them are doing fine but not spectacular.

#213 (4") is the weakest of these four while the rest are about equal.

#214 (5")

#215 (4")

#218 (4") is the newest member of the white patch, which moved into the spot of the first outside dead sample. For that to happen I figured out how to remove the 6” container buried 2 feet under ground level. The method was to drill four holes just below the PVC top rim, strong metal wire through making kind of a handle and then pull using heavy duty work gloves on the wire. The gravel that  was placed around the PVC tube served as a good “lubricant”, making  procedure much simpler than anticipated. #218 looked very crooked coming out of 3” container. For that reason I used a stick to straighten it out. It appears that the plant had no issues adjusting to this “nurture” and looks very healthy at this time.

#CA1 (12") is the purchased seedling, which is now approximately two years old, making it roughly the same age as #1-100 batch. Despite its distinctly different color of bottom needles, it looks like a completely average sample from volume and height stand point. The top 6” of the plant look darker and more blue, compared to the bottom 6” that were grown in California that look greener and lighter in color.  As the new needles grow both at the top and bottom branches it starts to look more like the rest of the samples grown under Iowa sun. #CA 1 experienced a spurt growth in late June but then slowed down by end of July.

Brown Patch containing 206, 207, 208, 216, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224. Brown Patch has one lead, four promising and six struggling seedlings. #217 is easily outgrowing both its neighbors and the container it’s in. #217 is currently the candidate for the move to 6” container in case #65 (or another sudden death) seedling gives up. #207 is the weakest sample due to early phase when it developed a substantial bend of its main stem. I was afraid to straighten it out because the lower part of the stem looked extremely thin and fragile. However, it kept on living, however unlikely it looked. In the last two weeks #207 appeared to finally started straightening out. Several of the samples, notably #216 acquired a substantial green moss growth  on soil surface due to strong rains and moderately warm (80-85F) weather over last 4 weeks. 

Several of the samples got mushrooms growing inside containers. As it was mentioned before the weather has been damp and warm over last several weeks. Samples that have mushrooms: 31, 39, 104, 112, 118:

Here is all twenty main patch samples by height ranking:

Rank	Name	Height
1	34	20.5
2	15	18
3	31	18
4	104	17
5	72	16.5
6	24	14
7	63	14
8	38	12.5
9	39	12.5
10	71	12
11	CA1	12
12	33	10
13	118	10
14	112	8.5
15	65	8
16	212	5
17	214	5
18	213	4
19	215	4
20	218	4