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

Another week, another inch

The evergreens continued advances of the past few weeks with no signs of slowing down. Long Term Survivals Plus (LTS+) added two more inches in the past two weeks.

Best example is #34, which was an average, somewhat dormant sample for the first year and half. It did qualify for LTS+ at the end of 2013, but was clearly no match for the likes of #72. #34 is currently the clear leader standing at just above 20" tall:

#34 July 27, 2014 

#34 August 10, 2014

All 20 6" samples are doing great at the moment, with 11 more 3" samples on the way.

White patch August 10, 2014

Brown patch August 10, 2014

A couple more "unaccounted" sequoias are growing quietly under the shade of bigger siblings. I threw a few seeds in May 2014 into the 6" containers that looked gray and in my opinion at the time on their way out. Both older siblings and the seeds took hold and are now starting to look survivable. It will be interesting to see what will happen with these in the next few years.

#65 with a small seedling at the base. August 10, 2014. Will call it #65.1

#112 with #112.1. August 10, 2014

Rapid Gains for July month of 2014

Last four weeks saw dramatic grow of the plants. The LTS+ grow at about an inch PER WEEK.

#34 is the current leader standing at just shy of 18":

#34 July 27, 2014. 1 year and 8 months old.

Not four but five new plants got moved to the main patch, now completing the 20 spot grid. The fifth one replaced dead #111.

Main patch July 27, 2014.

New crop ready for move

New seedlings from end of 2013 germination batch have been doing great since the move outside in April. It is time to start migration from 3" containers into 6". They will spend the winter outside.

First, ALL trees that were planted outside in 6" containers are doing fine, despite early scare. Four of them looked grey and sick after the first few weeks. Only one is somewhat questionable while all others are doing absolutely fine.

Forrest quarters. June 29, 2014

#212 from the baby patch (white PVC frame box in the picture) appeared to be the strongest of the batch.

#212 June 29, 2014

The now standard procedure was used to place the 3" tube inside the 6" and carefully remove two halves:

#212 being moved to larger container. June 29, 2014

The new addition is now planted alongside with two year old trees:

#212 moved to the forrest patch. June 29, 2014

Spring 2014 Move to the Woods

Finally it got warm enough in Iowa to move 1.5 year old sequoias outside.

I believe that mid-spring when the temperatures are in 50-70 range would stress the plants the least.

There are 16 stable sequoias at present in 6" containers and another 16 young ones in 3".

For the move outside I implemented a plan that I came up with last year. Here is what the temporary home looks like:

Forrest Patch April 2014

The idea was simple and not too difficult to implement. Here is a repeat of the basic idea:

Temporary housing

I cleared a patch of forrest behind the house to create a clearing for enough sunlight to reach the plants. What is not obvious from the picture above is that the patch is located on a fairly steep slope of about 15 degrees facing North-West. As I took the picture from the second floor deck of the house, it made it look like it's flat.

I put the patch on a slope for two reasons: water run off and shielding from the winds.

For future reference, here is a map of the samples - I am sure the rain and sunlight will quickly fade out writing on the labels:

Forrest patch map April 2014

Since these containers sit in one place for at least one summer (and possibly longer) and hoping my house is not destroyed in the meantime, it will be possible to make a time lapse of the growth. The setup for picture taking is as follows:

Focal length

Center of image

Tripod placement

I set the lens at 55mm focal length, centered on sample #63. The tripod was placed as pictured. I tried doing time lapses before but did not have much luck. Hopefully, it will be an interesting result.

2013 End of year report

One year, 1000 seeds and 225 seedlings later, we have 38 surviving sequoias.

Out of thirty eight, eighteen reached medium-term survivability (MTS) stage and are currently placed on the "white patch" in 6"-wide, 24"-tall PVC tubes. Out of eighteen MTS seedlings on the white patch, eleven reached long-term survivability (LTS) stage characterized by both large volume of lateral branches and overall height of at least 5". Five out of eleven LTS have a dominant lead (LTS+), which is at least 5"-tall on its own and is clearly separated from other branches. Since the target is 20 sequoias for eventual planting outside, the brown patch (BP) with starter seedlings has been replenished from germination batches of about 200 seeds in the last 3 months.

• BP or better: 38 (all surviving)
• MTS or better: 18
• LTS or better: 11
• LTS+: 5 (best)

BP representatives:

December 28, 2013.

MTS representative. 3-5" tall, trunk shows hard brown bark at the base to about 1" of height, no significant branch volume, i.e. smaller than diameter of container:

#112, December 28, 2013. 11 month old.

LTS representative. 5"+ tall, trunk shows significant hard brown bark to 2", significant branch volume beyond 6" container rim:

#42, December 28, 2013. 1 year and 1 month old.

LTS+ representative. 8-10" tall, brown trunk to 3" followed by a strong lead, large branch volume with branches hanging down from the container rim:

#104, December 28, 2013. 1 year old.

Once seedlings reach LTS stage, only extreme environmental factors can kill them. Last extinction phase happened when all sequoias were left outside in extreme heat of 100-105F, which lasted for 3 days. About half of the MTS and 20% of LTS died after the event. None of the LTS+ (which had 3-5" leads at the time) perished. 

LTS and LTS+ have one feature in common: very loose soil. There are several MTS that still have denser soil but show clear signs of decline. They are not expected to survive.

MTS with heavy soil representative:

#106, December 28, 2013. 1 year old.

To address the apparent role of soil, last five MTS were planted in 6"-wide containers with addition of 1-1.5" river rock throughout the volume at 6-8" interval and a 2" bed of pure rock at the bottom of the containers.  The problem with having just very loose soil is the gradual compression of the soil and plants getting lower inside the tube as time passes. Trunk base of several LTS samples is now 4" below the top rim of the containers, making it difficult to apply water and fertilizer.

MTS planting with river rock:

#111, December 28, 2013. 11 month old. River rock was added throughout container to improve drainage. Note that rock and perlite in this picture were mixed with cactus soil that was poured on top. This picture may be potentially misleading to indicate that there were layers of pure rock and perlite throughout the volume, which was not the case.

MTS planted in such a fashion have strong structural support allowing formation of a pronounced hill and a moat around the base, without eventual sagging of the plant down the container. This allows for water and fertilizer to be applied around the seedlings and simplifies carrying for the plants:

#118, December 28, 2013. 11 month old.

With river rock added the containers are much heavier than the successful LTS, but the hypothesis is that dramatically increased drainage with be beneficial to the sequoias.

In addition to the seedlings that are growing from seeds, my wife has purchased a 1 year old sequoia, which was grown and shipped from California. I planted it in one of the 6" containers alongside other seedlings. This sample has much more yellow color, compared to the bluish color sequoias that were growing in Iowa:

#CA 1,  December 28, 2013. Approximately 1 year old.

  The same soil technique with river rock was used for planting of the #CA 1.

Happy New Year!

Green Christmas

Second Sequoia Christmas is here! The experiment is going strong, with about ten trees growing vigorously, another five doing average and another five in various stages of decline. Another twenty or so young seedlings are in the "pipeline" as well.

Tallest ones are #110 and #72, standing just shy of 10". Another five or so are between 5" and 9".

Sequoias and Bitcoins

Since the white patch needed patching with a few more samples I started a new germination run. The idea was to keep a solid influx of new seedlings.

This time I decided not to measure the number of seeds exactly, unlike previous times when I started with 100. I threw a number of seeds that looked about the same quantity on a wet paper filter second week of October 2013. Today I counted all germinated and non-germinated seeds with this cycle now being complete and no new germinations anticipated.

The tally is as follows: 25 out of 78 now stand with green leaves. I also started moving October 25 geminations into 3" containers.

New batch Fall 2013

Just for fun, I placed current Bitcoin price in the same shot :) Let's see what grows faster and longer term.