With the growing season over it's time to get ready for the cold Iowa winter.
Slightly more seedlings will spend the winter outside than the last winter. Most of them will enter this winter much stronger than in 2014-15. Out of twenty five seedlings, eighteen will see their second test by cold. It is pretty remarkable that out of twenty in 2014-15, there were so many survivors.
The last winter was pretty regular for an Iowa winter. Slightly higher temperatures for most of the winter but with a very cold February that pushed the winter overall below normal. Slightly less snow than normal fell last winter but the big snow storm coincided with the deep freeze in February, which helped with the tree protection.
The 2015-16 winter outlook is dominated by strong El Nino predicting more snow and above average temperatures late Fall and at least early winter. Later winter may see some cold spells. Sounds like a repeat of last winter but with more snow.
Last year the seedlings were all small enough to be buried either completely or to 3/4 of the height in snow. Some of the taller ones like #15 and #34 got severely damaged. #15 is a remarkable survivor that bounced back from the loss of the main trunk. #34 did not bounce back as strong but (with the main trunk surviving) added just 45% (9") during this growing season. It's a far cry from the snow-covered #33 that tripled in size from May through October of 2015 from 10" to 32".
The biggest sequoia threat is windburn. To fight the windburn menace all sequoias will be protected with dual defense lines. The first one starts on the bottom with a heavy dose of mulch added around each tree with a diameter of at least 3 feet across. Older and bigger trees will get as much as 6 feet across of 6-8" of mulch. The second and most drastic line is a fence around each tree. The bigger trees are getting a cone shaped teepee made out of wire with a layer of burlap on the outside.
I do feel like I am over protecting the trees especially given the moderate winter outlook. To that effect I am leaving three largest trees somewhat exposed to the elements by making a cylinder wind breaker rather than making a complete cover.
The smaller trees will be getting plant protector foam buckets:
It was devastating to see a beautiful 9-feet tall sequoia in Iowa being destroyed by the 2013-14 winter in Fairfield. I believe that Hardy Jim over-protected his sequoia in the first two winters. Once it became not feasible to protect it suffered a terrible blow from an especially severe winter. It might have been just the wrong sequence of unfortunate events or otherwise an incredibly great tree may still be living in Iowa.
Update on seed germinations. All Giant Sequoias died. Probable culprits include early exposure to hard sun followed by over-watering and adding liquid fertilizer for the last three surviving samples. All had damage of the stem near the ground that turned black and withered. A batch of 50 new sequoias is started, unstratified. The glass container with plastic lid was treated with Clorox to eliminate hostile agents prior to placing paper filter with seeds.
Blue spruce seedlings continue to be green but look thin and unhealthy. Doug-fir seedlings are going very strong. A mouse destroyed half of the white pine patch, the rest are not getting from casings yet. Sitka spruce doing fairly well for the surging samples. They are getting stronger but the rate was somewhat low in 10-15% range. Western hemlock has only 2 pretty weak seedlings remaining. Everything else is dead in the germinated from seeds crop.
And finally, a remarkable find: Arid Arborist is trying a similar project in Indiana!
Slightly more seedlings will spend the winter outside than the last winter. Most of them will enter this winter much stronger than in 2014-15. Out of twenty five seedlings, eighteen will see their second test by cold. It is pretty remarkable that out of twenty in 2014-15, there were so many survivors.
The last winter was pretty regular for an Iowa winter. Slightly higher temperatures for most of the winter but with a very cold February that pushed the winter overall below normal. Slightly less snow than normal fell last winter but the big snow storm coincided with the deep freeze in February, which helped with the tree protection.
The 2015-16 winter outlook is dominated by strong El Nino predicting more snow and above average temperatures late Fall and at least early winter. Later winter may see some cold spells. Sounds like a repeat of last winter but with more snow.
Last year the seedlings were all small enough to be buried either completely or to 3/4 of the height in snow. Some of the taller ones like #15 and #34 got severely damaged. #15 is a remarkable survivor that bounced back from the loss of the main trunk. #34 did not bounce back as strong but (with the main trunk surviving) added just 45% (9") during this growing season. It's a far cry from the snow-covered #33 that tripled in size from May through October of 2015 from 10" to 32".
The biggest sequoia threat is windburn. To fight the windburn menace all sequoias will be protected with dual defense lines. The first one starts on the bottom with a heavy dose of mulch added around each tree with a diameter of at least 3 feet across. Older and bigger trees will get as much as 6 feet across of 6-8" of mulch. The second and most drastic line is a fence around each tree. The bigger trees are getting a cone shaped teepee made out of wire with a layer of burlap on the outside.
I do feel like I am over protecting the trees especially given the moderate winter outlook. To that effect I am leaving three largest trees somewhat exposed to the elements by making a cylinder wind breaker rather than making a complete cover.
The smaller trees will be getting plant protector foam buckets:
It was devastating to see a beautiful 9-feet tall sequoia in Iowa being destroyed by the 2013-14 winter in Fairfield. I believe that Hardy Jim over-protected his sequoia in the first two winters. Once it became not feasible to protect it suffered a terrible blow from an especially severe winter. It might have been just the wrong sequence of unfortunate events or otherwise an incredibly great tree may still be living in Iowa.
Update on seed germinations. All Giant Sequoias died. Probable culprits include early exposure to hard sun followed by over-watering and adding liquid fertilizer for the last three surviving samples. All had damage of the stem near the ground that turned black and withered. A batch of 50 new sequoias is started, unstratified. The glass container with plastic lid was treated with Clorox to eliminate hostile agents prior to placing paper filter with seeds.
Blue spruce seedlings continue to be green but look thin and unhealthy. Doug-fir seedlings are going very strong. A mouse destroyed half of the white pine patch, the rest are not getting from casings yet. Sitka spruce doing fairly well for the surging samples. They are getting stronger but the rate was somewhat low in 10-15% range. Western hemlock has only 2 pretty weak seedlings remaining. Everything else is dead in the germinated from seeds crop.
And finally, a remarkable find: Arid Arborist is trying a similar project in Indiana!
This is a great blog - will be following in the future. I think sequoias can be planted across much of the world to combat carbon dioxide (http://dewharvest.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-planets-lungs-planting-giant.html) and think I have found a device to grow them during their first fragile year outdoors (the Groasis Waterboxx PlantCocoon). Best of luck.
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