End of 2017 growing period

Another year is over. 2017 was by far the slowest growth year for the older sequoias and somewhat slower for younger sequoias. 

The median growth across all thirty tracked trees was 5 inches. Three out of 2016 top five perished. Previous giants #38 (50in), #31 (44in) and #72 (39in) have all since been removed. The longest height addition was with #212 - 11 inches. The highest tree is also the longest surviving, #33 reached 54 inches. The strongest overall tree with the largest volume of needles is #104, standing at 47.5 inches. It shows significant amount of damage in the middle part that happened at the end of summer 2016, but it recovered extraordinarily well. The healthiest tree with minimal amount of damaged branches is #212 standing at 47 inches. The volume of branches and needles is not as great as #104 but it managed to preserve practically all branches since birth. The highest #33 has not been able to recover completely this summer. It has significant part of the trunk void of growing branches. 

Several five year old trees survived after loosing about half of the leading trunk over the last winter but failed to gain substantial height since spring. #63 lost 13 inches as compared to the previous fall while #39 almost recovered but not quite, standing 3 inches below last year finish. One strong 4 year old tree #207 also grew reasonably well but after all it lost about 3 inches. All these three trees look similar with many lower branches attempting to recover, giving the trees appearance of a bush. Only one, #39 has a distinct lead, while the other two are completely random.

Here is top 20 trees, sorted by height, starting from five year old #33 at 54 inches and rounding up the list #261, a 2 year old seedling standing at 12 inches.

#33

#33, 5 year old. 54 inches

#104

#104, 5 years old, 47.5 inches

#212

#212, 4 years old, 47 inches

#118

#118, 5 years old, 36 inches

#112

#112, 5 years old, 33 inches

#214

#214, 4 years old, 32 inches

#208

#71

#71, 5 years old, 29 inches

#65

#65, 5 years old, 29 inches

#215

#215, 4 years old, 27 inches

#221

#221, 4 years old, 27 inches

#222

#222, 4 years old, 23 inches

#39

#39, 5 years old, 19 inches

#219

#219, 4 years old, 18 inches

#63

#63, 5 years old, 16 inches

#207

#207, 4 years old, 15 inches

#255

#255, 2 years old, 14 inches

#220

#220, 4 years old, 14 inches

#256

#256, 2 years old, 13 inches

#261

#261, 2 years old, 12 inches

There are also a little over 100 new fall 2016 - winter 2017 germinated seedlings that are currently not being tracked for height.

2016 seedlings approaching 1 year old. They vary from 2 to 5 inches.

These new seedlings have been doing exceptionally well till very recently. In the last few weeks many of them started to have purple disease that is killing lower branches and needles. 

Several first year seedlings were planted in the ground this fall. The vast majority of these will spend the winter in a cold box, protected from all sides from the elements.