2020 growing season begins

It has been a long time since the last update. This past winter has not been nearly as bad as the previous one but several sequoias still perished.

The two largest and oldest sequoias suffered opposite fates. One emerged unscathed nice and green with a bunch of new growth as of May 23 while the other one is completely dead.

Previous leader #222 is completely dead with no signs of new green well into June:

This past winter it was surrounded by a foam cylinder but without the top. The idea was to protect it against the direct wind and allow snow and rain to go directly on the tree. Did not work. 

The second leader #220 faired much better but it was heavily protected by Lutrasil fabric layer and by a complete foam cone

#220 is about 20 inches tall with vigorous new green growth throughout the entire volume.

There are four more sequoias that spent second winter planted in the ground, but they have been severely underdeveloped over last two years. One reached the height of over 40 inches at one point but was completely destroyed and started re-growing from practically zero height. This winter it as once again seriously damaged but a few new green shoots appeared in the late spring:

Two very small sequoias from 2016 are still alive but do not exceed 4 inches:

One of the 2016 germinations trees was doing moderately well but the growth has never kicked in like most normally developing trees. #267 stands at about  10 inches tall:

This wraps ups all the sequoia trees that were germinated here in Iowa and spent the last winter planted in ground. 

Three hardy hybrids from Crowfoot Nursery in Oregon were planted in the ground and all were protected by foam. Two of them were Hazel Smith and one was Glaucum. All three survived with varying degree of success. 

The worst is a Hazel Smith that was kept under one very large foam covering along with two other sequoias - Glaucum hybrid and a regular germinated sequoia. The regular one died. The Glaucum one is doing well.

HS in bad shape but there is one good new shoot:

Glaucum is not big but has plenty of new green growth:

The remaining hardy hybrid was planted in a different location and is doing fine. It was one of the smaller HS but surprisingly it did well:

Another patch of sequoias was planted together consisting of only purchased sequoias from a different nursery in Oregon. They were not hardy hybrids but rather normal green giant sequoias. They were all kept under a layer of Lutrasil and a foam cone above. Out of four planted three survived with minimal damage and one died. all survivors look approximately the same:

This wraps up the list of the sequoias that spent the last winter outside in the ground.

This spring the rest of the sequoias were planted in the ground except the seedling germinated in the Fall of 2019 and some 2018.

Here is an example of a HS sequoia planted in this recent batch:

In total there are:

In ground Hardy Hybrids (Hazel Smith, Exceptionally Blue and Glaucum) - 21

In ground Germinated in Iowa regular 2014-2018 - 8

In ground Oregon regular 2016 - 7

Seedlings 2018 in pots - 6

Seedlings 2019 in pots - 33

2019 end of growing season

2019 growing season is quickly wrapping up. There are no tall sequoias anywhere on the tree farm. Here is an account of all sequoias that are growing.

There are several categories of sequoias, for a total of 64 living seedlings:

1. Original experiment, grown from J.L. Hudson seeds in 2013-2016, 200 and 400 series. Qty: 6
2. Seedlings purchased in March and October 2018 (2016 germinations). Scenic Hill Farm nursery in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Qty: 11 (out of 30  purchased)
3. 2018 germinations 500 series. Qty: 28
4. Cold hardy sequoia seedlings purchased in December 2018 from Crowfoot nursery in Oregon,  All grafted. Qty: 19
1. Exceptionally Blue - 1
2. Hazel Smith - 15
3. Glaucum - 3

All six 200-400 series and three out of Scenic Hill sequoias are planted in ground and all others are in pots.

The 200 series recovered well from the last winter:

220 Fall 2019, about 2 feet tall

As you may recall, there was little left of it at the beginning of this growing season:

220 Spring 2019

Similar situation with 222:

222 Fall 2019, about 2 feet tall

214 did not fare as well as the others but it does not appear to be in immediate danger of dying.
207 that was still the most promising tree as of the end of 2018 did not survive the winter.

400 series from 2016 germinations are barely growing. The two remaining survivors stand at about 5 inches:

400, 2016 germination, 5"

Scenic Hill sequoias had a significant mortality rate after last brutal winter. Out of about a dozen sequoias planted in the ground last Fall and all being kept under foam protectors, only 4 survived well into the middle of the summer. One sequoias unexpectedly died in early September with no usual signs of fungus. It just started turning yellow-grayish color as if from the lack of (or excessive) moisture and finally withered away. The three remaining sequoias look about the same:

Scenic Hill OR sequoia planted in ground in Fall 2018, 18". It is one of three planted in ground

Here  is the Scenic Hill sequoias in  pots:

Scenic Hill sequoias, 2016 germinations

2018 germinations:

Cold hardy sequoias look as follows:

Exceptionally Blue graft, 2018

Hazel Smith grafts, 2018

Hazel Smith, 2018

Glaucum, 2018

Most of the potted sequoias are going to spend next winter indoors. Just a handful of new sequoias will be going in the ground in November time frame and all will be protected with thermal foam.

Answering some questions

AnonymousJuly 22, 2019 at 9:20 PM

I live in zone 6, so I suppose a lot of your findings might not translate. Specifically, I was curious about:

1) Do you stratify at room temperature on a damp coffee filter with distilled water?

2) After roots appear, what is the soil composition you transfer the seeds to, how much sunlight do the germinated seeds receive, and how much water do they receive/how often are they watered? Do you use fungicide or fertilizer?

3) Is there a maximum amount of time the plants can remain indoors? I have a grow light, and would like to keep them out of the cold for as long as possible. I know you had concerns about the plants becoming accustomed to the warmth.

4) Once planted outside, do you still regularly water the trees?

I know that’s a lot of questions, but I’d really like to get this right, and you’re probably the most knowledgeable person on this topic. Anything would help. Thanks again!

Here is what I am thinking:

Zone  6 is a little better but I still think you will have a hard  time keeping them  alive.  Worth  trying  regardless.

1. Stratification is not  needed. The seeds  are  cheap enough. For $40 I got one  ounce, which  is  approximately 6,000  seeds. Even if you do a batch  of 100 seeds at a  time, you  will  end up  with  enough germinations that  will keep you occupied for the whole season. I did  400 at one time and  ended  up with 150 germinations. What  you do not  appreciate at the beginning  of  the journey is how much time is required to take proper  care of  just 20-30 seedlings. 100 unstratified seeds should give you between 10 and 40 germinations. I germinate on  a coffee filter with regular tap water. I normally spray it with Dakonil, which kills any potential fungi. Typically you get first germinations after 10-15 days and then they keep popping up for about a month.

2. I use pure peat moss with about 1/5th of perlite by volume as starter medium. Make sure to mix it with water so that it's very damp like a wet sponge. Seeds do not require any sun to germinate but after they have germinated the more light the better. I use fluorescent lamps, both 2 ft and 4ft version with 6 lamps in each. Try to keep the light about 6-8 inches from the tops as it really helps with the  growth. My last couple of batches I kept lamps about 12 inches away and they still did okay. With 12 inches away it's much easier to water without moving the lights. If you decide to keep lights close be careful not to overheat. I used to have a small fan blowing atop the seedlings removing any potential hot air build up. Water once a week. I have a measuring flask, each seedling would get about 50ml. That seems about right for a week for my humidity and temperatures. Do not worry too much about exact water amount. As long as the containers dont get too light, they should be okay. I read that too much water may cause negative effects but in practice did not notice that when I over watered. I do use fungicide. It is in my experience #1 remedy for healthy young seedlings. Aforementioned Dakonil (chlorotholanil active compound) is the miracle drug for sequoias. I lost countless hundreds of sequoias before I started applying Dakonil. They do not need it often but once about every 6-8 weeks a spray of Dakonil keeps troubles away. I do not use any fertilizer, although I did an experiment with an unlikely "fertilizer" - magnesium sulfate, about 2% solution - with seemingly great results. It's hard to say if that was really the effect of that magnesium salt or just LOOKED better to me. The reason why I decided to add magnesium was because since I used just peat moss I was thinking that would really have practically no nutrients. Where would Mg2+ would come from to form the chlorophyl for the green needles? Obviously some is available in tap water, but I thought jump starting it with an extra shot of Mg2+ would not hurt. And it did not. I apply that solution every 4-6 weeks instead of watering with tap water.

3. I do not think there is any limit on how long you would want to keep them inside during winter. Eventually you will have no choice. They grow. They really really like sun (with plenty of watering) during summer, but if you have space indoors to keep them then by all means, do it. By year 3 some of my sequoias got to 3-4 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide. It's okay to keep a few of them inside but it becomes impractical for anything more than 10 unless you have some large indoor space for some reason. I no longer think that keeping them inside is bad for long term survivability. However, once they go outside, you would have to protect them till they get firmly established. This means, I am guessing now 5-7 years outdoors. Developing root system is the most critical part of the process. If you have means of planting 2-3 year sequoias outside and keep them protected over next 5-7 winters then I think that is the most real chance to establish them.

4. No, I do not regularly water them when planted outside. All trees that got planted outside never showed signs of being water stressed. The two nightmares are fungi and winter desiccation. When it is really hot and dry then yes, I do put some water around them, just in case, but as I said, I never observed water related problems. One time I had moved a very large seedling (4 feet tall) from a container into the ground. Because it was so large and heavy (mostly because I did not want  to damage the root ball with a lot of soil) that it took me several hours  of moving stuff around. The top of the tree drooped severely and most branches drooped as  well. After I  placed  the tree in the ground I  watered it thoroughly and by the next  morning it was back to its normal self. Never had that problem again with that tree (till it died from a severe fungus attack).

Other tips - spray early in the spring with Dakonil. Then repeat in the middle of summer and again in the early fall. Fungus starts to develop and then quickly takes over  trees in late August-September.

Now more of a speculation, since I have not really attempted that yet, it will be required to protect them for many years from the winter cold before the roots develop wide and deep enough to pump enough water. I have now build a large foam cone, stealing the idea from the so called "rose protectors". Stealing, in the sense that I just re-used the idea of an octagonal pyramid made out of styrofoam, only larger. I built an experimental 8 foot tall protecting cone for the next winter, will see how the sequoias fare under that. If the cone itself survives that is. We have severe winds here in Iowa during winter that may exceed 50 MPH. And they can be blowing for days with temperatures deep into the negatives. Longer term solution for me is that I am now growing several barrier walls of hardy conifers around the future sequoia site with the idea of breaking up the severe winter winds. Even with that, I think I will need to keep wrapping large sequoias into some protective layers for years to come.

Good luck and share your pictures.

2019 season opening

Say what? Season opening in June? Yes, this update has little to do with typical measuring of the growth and beautiful pictures of giant sequoias. Instead, it’s the next chapter in the mighty war of sequoias in Zone 5.

There were total of about 20 GS outside for the past winter. Two normal trees, about 2-3ft tall, two bush-like survivors from previous winters and the rest all very small seedlings up to 8-9 inches tall. All seedlings and the two “bushes” were kept under styrofoam thermal cones. The two real trees had a burlap layer outside of the wire fence and another layer of highly reflective plastic. There was a decent amount snow this past winter with about 2/3rd of the tree height covered by it by the middle of the winter.

This winter was exceptionally cold and long. Temperatures dipped to -30F (-34C). With the windchill temperatures were reported to be below -50F (-45C). Average minimal temperature for January 2019 was an incredible -20F (-29C). This means not only that it got extremely cold several times, it stayed cold all January.

It got a little better in February but It was still -20C several times and then in March it got to -22C yet again. Majority of April was below freezing. Apple and cherry trees bloomed three weeks later than usual. This winter was hell for people and sequoias alike.

One of the older trees completely died:

By middle May there were no traces of green.

The second and largest tree did not die completely but it was severely decimated except for a few branches at the very bottom:

#220 after 2019 winter

Number 220 will most likely become another bush-like sequoia.

All "giant sequoias bushes" that were  covered with styrofoam survived without any visible problems. They are beginning to produce new shoots that perhaps will lead to the new leads. However, they all look like more or less like #220 above.

Several Hazel Smiths that were purchased in December 2018 are sitting in pots:

An experiment I would like to conduct for next winter is to build a large styrofoam cone that would cover larger trees.

Mid winter update 2019

Another winter, another trial by fire, err cold.

Temperatures dropped to negative 35C with strong wind. Windchills were reported to negative 45C. How can anything survive here?

I am glad that in addition to sequoias I now have a full complement of hardy conifers in the park. It's possible that the sequoia seedling will survive THIS winter because they were well protected but another winter like that when they are 6-10 foot tall and I am pretty sure they will die. Short of building a dome, there is no way Giant Sequoias can stand -45C windchill.

All things considered, this recent episode was not bad. Since the death of all tall sequoias last winter, the two 2-3 footers were wrapped pretty well with burlap and even some Reflectix material (bubble wrap with aluminum film). There was also over a foot of snow on the ground, plus the day before temperatures started plunging, I added even more fluffy light snow on top of the trees:

The seedlings were almost completely buried:

Back in the warmth of the house, I now have a few Hazel Smith samples. I was advised by one of my followers from Finland about the existence of Crowfoot Nursery on Oregon. Their product list includes quite a few grafted liners of various SGs variants, including the hardiest of them all - Hazel Smith:

I must say, the service was excellent. All trees came in top shape. Packaging was simply amazing.

All grafted seedling are doing well sitting in a protective cage:

A couple dozen 2018 germinated small seedlings are still doing fine in their starter containers. I moved half a dozen into larger, 1 quart (1L) containers. There is still quite a few regular 12-18" California seedlings but I am not sure what to do with them long term yet. They proved to be completely unacclimated to the life in Iowa.

Perhaps I will try my own grafting with them if Hazel Smiths survive in the next couple of years.

Watering the sequoias

Sequoia and Bitcoin 5 Year Update 2018

In October of 2013 I took a picture of a newly born sequoia from seed and Bitcoin:

October 2013 post

There were many twists and turns in the 5 years past. Both sequoias and Bitcoin experienced slow and steady growth, followed by a meteoric rise in 2017. Only to come crashing down in the winter of 2018.

And now,

Sequoia:

#220 2 feet tall, Oct 2018. 5 years old.

Bitcoin:

Both grew, both still alive, both significantly off their stronger days. #220 was a slow grower, kept in a container for two years longer than the larger and now dead siblings. The tallest trees from the original 2013 batch reached almost 5 feet in height while #220 today is just barely above 2 feet. What it lacks in height it gains in very healthy green needles with no sign of fungi or other damage.

Will take another picture and comparison in 5 years. It's a silly comparison but why not?

Iowa Sequoia Farm Fall Colors

Here is a short video clip from the farm.

Reset number 2. Map V.4

This is the second major reset since the beginning of the project in 2012.

Of course I knew that it would not be easy to grow a giant sequoia in Zone 5, so all is good. The first reset happened early on in the endeavor when I realized that just a few seeds are not going to grow me a sequoia here in Iowa. At that time I ordered 1 oz of seeds, which was about 6,000 of them. I started germinating batches of several hundred at a time pushing a few dozen green sequoias into the wild every spring.

The project was going okay and the first three winters were unusually warm for Iowa. The last winter was not extraordinarily cold but there was a cold spell for 2-3 days that pushed the temperatures below -40C with strong winds. The trees that were kept under the foam cones did fine but almost all bigger trees that were uncovered perished. Below is an account of the survivors from the Zone 5 wrath and more importantly a new plan to get the trees established in this hostile land.

If it were a total loss, meaning all 100% of sequoias uncovered by foam cones dead, then I would have to call defeat. It was not the case, however. Several sequoias survived. They were badly damaged but still living. The reason conifers die is because they keep needles green through the worst of the low temperatures and must pump water. Once they are unable to pump enough water they desiccate and die.

Eastern Iowa is half way between Missouri and Minnesota in Zone 5A, transitioning to Zone 5B over last quarter century. It's highly likely that the global warming will continue over next 25-100 years.  This means that within my expected lifespan of additional 8900 days (give or take) Zone 5B is going to move up the state to the North and Zone 6 will get a hold of the area where this sequoia project is unfolding. If I take care of the trees over next few years getting them ready for what's coming for them may just work. Barely, but it might. Kind of DARPA-ish, am I right? :D

Without any further ado, the survivors!

Wham wham wham. First, the most viable survivors that were actually under the foam. And next I will show what actual survivors look like.

#220

#220 Fall 2018. Approximately 30 inches

#207

#207 Fall 2018. Approximately 24 inches

Now onto the "real" survivors.
#214

#222

As can be seen on these last two photos, the damage was severe. The hope for these two lies with #207. By the start of the 2018 season it looked approximately like #222 is looking today. It bounced back during 2018 season and is now looking like a real tree again. #220 is largest and healthiest looking of all of them but that does not mean much. It has not spent a single winter without foam cones yet. This upcoming winter is going to be its first without extreme protection.

There are a couple of more survivors but they can barely be called even that. Just some minor small green needles remaining on side branches close the ground.

Now onto the bigger plan and the new reset. First, here is a top down view of the lot:

Here is an annotated version that explains rhyme and reason behind what's going on:

The outer windbreaker wall is made of mostly norway spruce. There is some green spruce on the west and south side of that outermost barrier. The trees are planted 5 feet apart. The second line of defense against the wind is arborvitae and eastern pine. There are a couple of Austrian pines in the mix as well. In general, the outer and middle windbreaker walls are separated by about 12 feet to allow mowing and passage of a tractor. The emphasis is on the northern side of the lot with somewhat less protection on the south side. The logic here is that the sequoia areas should not be shaded from the sun and should be protected against severe Iowa winter winds. Also, for that reason, south part of the windbreaker wall is made up of slower growing green spruce rather than the very fast growing norway spruce on the north.

The intent is to slowly remove inner layers of non-sequoia trees as sequoias (hopefully) mature, so that not to cause competition for light and water.

The sequoia zones marked as blue polygons are intended for dense sequoia planting, reminiscent of the pictures found in the natural habitat. The intent is to also remove weaker sequoia trees over time, leaving one or two trees per polygon area by the time they can be considered established (15-20 years). Additional zones may be added in the future in case the experiment succeeds over the next 5-10 years.

A pond was added between two sequoia zones for easy watering in case of long draught periods. A small stream was artificially created that moves the water across the lot. The roof of the pergola in the middle is made of clear plastic that collects rain water. This rain water is collected in a barrel with a spill off into the stream. A small pump moves the water from the pond up the hill into the same water barrel. Water, both from the pond and from rain, goes down the hill into the pond. About 200W solar panels were installed on the pergola roof, facing south and south-west.

Here is a perspective view of the area during preparation of the sequoia zones:

This is a look from west to east. The first sequoia zone is located in the middle of the picture and a little to the left of the stream. The second zone will be planted with sequoia seedlings approximately where the white net shade structure is in this picture. The shaded area was used to store small sequoias this past summer. Unfortunately they were mostly destroyed by some animals since there was no protective fencing around them.

Ample amounts of anti-desiccant will be applied on all trees to ensure survival. Small sequoias inside blue zones are small enough to be covered with foam cones for the upcoming winter. Surviving older sequoias will get both the polymer and burlap on the outside of the metal mesh fence.

The king is dead, long live the king

The winter took out most of the sequoias. Young and old. The larger ones that were showing promise in the spring ultimately did not recover. I removed all dead trees past weekend. The map will obviously need to be updated to reflect the new order.

The new order is, as I started describing in the last post, to build a fortification consisting of a dual windbreak lines of hardy conifer trees. Further hardening will be done through cluster planting of sequoia seedlings close to each other so that the trees closer to the middle would experience less windburn. Finally, the trees will be treated with polymer in the fashion described by Jacob from Kelly's tree farm.

Surviving ones include #207:

#220?

There are a few more that have some green growth at the bottom but all are minimal and pretty meaningless to measure at this time.

Both of the surviving trees were kept under the foam cones. However, foam protection is not the ultimate protection. All of the seedlings that were kept in the pots inside a foam protected box, all 120 of them, also perished. Wind burn and desiccation is one of the problems but root system freeze out is also deadly to sequoias. Red cedar that was kept in the same box with sequoias survived just fine.

Here is picture of the dead #33, which was the tallest tree after previous season:

And here is another strong tree from last year, #104, after it was cut down:

The pond near sequoia clusters continues to take shape. Recent rains are filling it up pretty quickly.

A shade area was set up with 25%, 40% and 50% light blocking fabric where younger sequoias will be kept through the summer. The cluster planting will happen in the fall, also under the protected structure, only for winter it will be an insulation fabric. The idea is to have insulation screen movable, so that the trees are exposed to snow and some wind but for the especially cold periods it would be moved over on top to cover the seedlings. The overarching goal is to continue training trees to Iowa winters but without killing them.

Late Spring Map version 3

It JUST got warm in Iowa.

It was still snowing last week here. The temps were oscillating around freezing point. There was not all that much rain but when it fell it was mixed with snow and sleet. There is nothing new to report about the sequoia trees from the park, since everything continues to be in a suspended state. With temperatures now moving into the low sixties it's destined to change.

With no sequoia activity it was a good time to start thinking about improving the site. Without any further delay, here is a new map, version 3. It's mostly to indicate the scope of work for the upcoming season.

Iowa Sequoia Map Version 3

This picture also shows sequoias planted in the ground (large red circles with black outline) with some hope of revival. If you remember the older maps, you will see that quite a few older sequoias are now gone.

The two major objectives for this summer is planting of the windbreaks and creating a water collection system. The windbreak is made of the the two barriers - one outside consisting of Norway spruce and White spruce; and an inner row of pines and arborvitaes. The water collection system is two-fold - ground drainage collection into a small pond and a pergola roof rain collector with a barrel of water.

Map version 3, zoomed

In case of extra water from the roof, the spill will be diverted into the pond. The roof based collector is 8x8ft. With a 2 inch of rain it will collect about 80 gallons of water. The barrel that I got is 50 gallons, so it's highly likely spills will occur. The pond will also accumulate water flowing from the hill. A drainage trench will be dug where the water flows naturally. I marked the area of flowing water last fall during heavy rains. The area around the pond, protected behind two rows of wind breaking trees will hold the main "sequoia sanctuary". I also intend to protect young sequoias with aggressive winter measures, mainly applying sealing polymer and wrapping with thermal materials till the windbreakers grow taller and sequoias had a chance to create larger root system. The other two green sequoia areas will be the places for the experiments with limiting vertical growth by cutting the leads in the fall.

Last week I purchased a total of 60 trees for the wind breakers:

They had to wait till this week for the snow to melt and the ground to finally unfreeze. Today first windbreaker trees were planted: