Slow and steady

Past week happened to be remarkably unremarkable. Nothing collapsed or grew more than an inch. The sun was plentiful with at least some sun every day and most days severe clear. The heat was moderate but pushing into low 90s for a a couple of days.

Even #33 the topic of excitement over last few weeks grew by one inch. Despite very moderate height gain the growth continued at the base of many trees. All traditional leaders are adding lower branch volume en mass. #CA1 was removed.

The sun is out

Finally a mostly sunny week. Overall the trees responded favorably to the sun and related heat. The temperatures climbed a couple of times into low-mid nineties but did not stay there for long. Humidity was high, in the 80s and 90s. Strong thunderstorms pummeled areas around the state but resulted only in one moderate rain locally.

Although average growth was just 0.7" across all trees, one in particular established an all time weekly record. #33 added 3 inches past week and captured the top rank in height. In addition to the height it continues to grow vigorously in all directions along the tree trunk.

#33 July 19, 2015

This sample is a clear outlier that added 17 inches since last winter, twice as much as any other. Percent-wise it currently sits at 170% since last winter, also twice as much as the next highest. I am beginning to suspect that the roots escaped the container and are now reaching into the soil around. I observed a similar phenomenon with #39 that had three strong roots, one on the bottom and two on the sides that reached outside of the container. Based on the evidence of extreme growth and escaping roots in previously removed containers, I decided to move #33, potentially cutting the roots but preserving the plant long term.

Experiment #39 proved to be successful. Even though I cut off three roots while moving it to a new sunnier spot, it grew well adding 1.75" last week. As mentioned last time, the sunny experiment trees were moved once again with the containers buried in the ground.

One of the sunny experiment tree continued to lose height. It was #65 that is missing a leading branch. Pervious branches that were measured for height curved significantly over last few weeks pushing overall heigh down. The currently measured top branch is not resembling a lead at all. It is expected that the tree will continue to go down but overall it remains well developed with minor evidence of damage.

The remaining two sunny experiment samples are too young and short to draw any conclusions yet. One added 0.75" and the other posted zero gain.

Sunny patch July 2015. A row of four sequoias fenced against the animals plentiful in the area.

Top ten placement changed very little, except already described #33 that went from number three to the top spot and #39 gaining one spot ahead of #24 that is now at number nine.

Bottom ten grew moderately well given their overall lower heights. The notable exceptions were #15 that added above average 1.75", already described #65 that lost quarter of an inch and the CA1 sample that failed to show growth for many weeks.

Since CA1 continues to waste space I decided to replace it with next best candidate from the backup patch:

Backup patch July 19, 2015

Lots of sun but not a lot of growth

Plenty of sun shone on sequoias past week. Average growth appeared to be smallest since the start of the growing season at slightly less than half of an inch for the week. However, the story is a bit more interesting because of the new variable introduced last week.

Three samples were relocated to a new sunny place. All three, marked with light orange in the table, posted negative "growth". This is explained by general disturbance of moving to a new sunnier (and hotter) place and by significant shaking of the containers during relocation. One experimental sample suffered 1.5" loss but that sample (#65) saw wide fluctuations in the past due to branch bending between measurements. The rest of the patch performed quite well.

One clear concern for the sun experiment is the heat. The summer so far had been in mid to higher seventies and heat was not a big concern till this week. The week saw generally mid to upper 80s. However, the sun was full out with temperatures today climbing into mid-90s on the forecast of "cloudy and in mid 80s". Humidity is near 90% transferring heat extremely well all around. It is expected to be at least 10 degrees hotter next week.

Sun experiment: #39, #65, #207 and #221

Since containers are fully exposed to the sun, their roots experience much higher temperatures than the ones buried in the ground. For the experiment to be more successful, I will move them one more time to the other end of the yard with full sun exposure but with containers buried in the ground.

Three samples experienced more than 1 inch of growth, with #33 adding yet another 2" in one week. The height leader #34 added only 1" over last 4 weeks but it was able to maintain its top position, for now.

Second best height-wise (but as discussed last time, probably overall best) #31 added robust 1.25" and side branches remain very active as well.

#33 with its steady and outstanding growth overtook number three spot, beating #72 to the fourth place. #72 continued to add height at a slightly above average pace of 0.75" per week but it's overall volume is not as impressive as the anomalously strong "30s pack".

Samples in 5-10 range grew steadily with the above mentioned "sun experiment" #39, which posted 0 growth. Permanently planted #38 seemed to have picked up speed, both vertically and volume-wise.

Bottom ten saw very little movement adding somewhat below average height. A possible break out sample is #212, followed by #214 and #215. #212 formed a well defined leader with a solid lower branch support. There rest of #200s still look like seedlings that have bent main trunk and numerous branches sticking every which way.

A new sample, #207 was moved from a 3" container into a 6" one, becoming number 22 for tracking purposes. It also went to the sun experiment:

#207 July 2015. About 1.5 years old

A different look

So far I have been measuring height of sequoias. Although it's a good indicator of progress, it's not the whole story. This time in addition to the height I took pictures of the trees from above to give an estimate of their overall volume.

Before that, here is an update height measure table:

In two weeks since the last post top three retained their spots. The rest of top ten saw a significant shake up.

Placed ninth two weeks ago #33 jumped up five places to the fourth position adding almost 5" in two weeks. It more than doubled its height since last winter, going from 10" to current 22". It will also be clear from the top view that it appears to be the fastest overall growing sample.

Former fourth #63 dropped two spots to be ranked sixth.

#38, which was ranked fifth dropped two places down. Its permanent planting location so far keeps failing to realize into significant growth. It remains a healthy looking sample with very good lateral branch growth and moderate to weak vertical growth. There are numerous competing shoots on top with no one clear leader.

Former number six #104 saw steady growth of just under 2" nudging it up one place to fifth spot.

#39 went from seventh to ninth but overall saw a decent 1.5" height growth in two-weeks, which is to say it was overgrown by even stronger samples. #24 retained its eights spot by adding a bit over 2" to pull ahead of #39.

Closing top ten is #118 that maintained its position adding 0.5" per week.

The 10-21 spots saw some minor ups and downs but nothing out of the ordinary. #CA1 remains extremely weak and is highly unlikely to survive. The needles are thin with numerous black spots embracing entire green volume. #15 on the other hand keeps strengthening moving up only one spot to 12th but it is now approaching the top ten.

Now to the top views.

As it was mentioned above, #33 grew vigorously this season doubling its height. Here is a picture showing its lateral growth:

#33 July 2015, top view

It appears to be as wide on average as it is tall with foliage evenly spaced around the plant. Other strong plants have wide branches but #33 has overall high density all around for a plant that doubled its height since winter.

#24 and #33 next to each other July 2015. Compare with volume of #104 on top right.

As it is clearly seen on the picture above, height is not the whole story. #104 on top right is almost as tall as #33 and 1.5" taller than #24, but it has less than half the volume of these two.

Another good example is current leader #34. Sitting comfortably over two inches above next closest rival, it has branches only on one half of the plant and the middle section is devoid of any branches at all. Calling it a "leader" is definitely a stretch:

#34 July 2015 top view

The "real" leader at this time appears to be #31. It is placed second height-wise, training 2.25" behind #34 but with its even volume around and along the trunk it is the strongest sample at this time. Although not permanently planted, it was moved a month ago to a much more open spot with ten times the volume of the container:

#31 July 2015

Edit:

An experiment with placing a few samples in full sun with no shading from 8AM till 8PM. I took one  (almost) three year old strong sample (#39), one weak old sample (#65) and one representative of the younger 2 year old samples (#221):