Winter preparations

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With one growing cycle complete it is time to wrap up (literally) the season dressing the trees into their "winter clothes" and start a new cycle of seeding.

The landscape of the park looks very different now.

Nursery with foam cones over one year old sequoias and other smaller seedlings. November 2016

Winterization wider view. November 2016

Meanwhile, back in the warmth of the home the new cycle of germination has begun.

I still have a lot of the Doug Fir cones from the trip in 2015 to Olympic National Park where I collected them at the Matt Albright center in Sequim, WA. I was unable to extract the seeds from the cones, so I just broke the cones to be smaller pieces and placed them into the containers with coffee paper filters. For all germinations I now use chlorotholanil instead of water.

Attempt and germinating Doug Fir from Washington state visit. Seeds from 2015. November 2016.

Another batch of Norway Spruce was also started. It is unclear why I had such a low survivability of these seeds last year.

A new batch of Norway spruce started. November 2016

And finally, a couple hundred new Giant sequoia seeds started germination in two containers. One is from my order in 2013 and the other from earlier this year.

Giant sequoia seeds from 2013 and 2016 were put for germination. November 2016

End of 2016 growing season

Now available in Russian.

2016 was a busy year.  In this post I will summarize the entire year of happenings. In addition to the sequoia and other tree events I will also describe what all happened on the land where the Sequoia park is being built.

Part 1. The trees

First, the very high level information on the trees:

The total of about 150 seedlings of various tree species spread around 3 acres of hilly land in Eastern Iowa. The location is close to the highest point in Johnson county but with ample supply of water due to the runoff from a pond located a few hundred feet from the park and a creek that runs from that pond through the park.

Out of 150 seedlings, about 50 are sequoias aged from one year to a little over four years. The rest are a mix of ponderosa pine (30), oriental spruce (25), Serbian spruce (12), fraser fir (10), balsam fir (6), Austrian pine (6), bаld cypress (4), Norway spruce (3), red cedar (2), tuja plicata (1). There are also half a dozen small seedlings that look like pine and a couple more that are most likely hemlock as well as a few more sequoias in tiny containers but they are all in a very poor shape.

Out of about two hundred 2016 newly germinated sequoia seedlings about 30 are surviving going into the winter. They range from 1 inch to 10 inches with majority in 3-5 inch category.

Three 4-year old sequoias perished this year. One due to the mechanical root damage (#15) by a critter, one (#38) due to the fungus that spread uncontrollably and one (#24) that turned bright orange for an unknown reason. None of the 3- and 2- year old sequoias died due to summer exposure except the ones that went into the last winter period in a poor shape and did not recover in spring. The largest 5-year old #38 is considered dead but there is a tiny sliver of hope that it will recover in spring since it still has a small green top, albeit with the black dots of disease. For this reason it is not removed from the ground till then.

Growth table for end of 2016 growing season (Click to view full table)

The tallest surviving sequoia (besides tall bud dead #38) is #33, standing at almost 46 inches:

#33 October 29, 2016. 4 years old

It had significant damage at the lower branches due to the same condition as the perished #38. However, the fungus did not spread as aggressively and I was able to catch it in time with some Clorotholanil. Percentage-wise it was in the middle of the pack at 43%.

The winners in the percent category were two there-year old seedlings, #212 and #222, both at 157%. #212 added absolute record of 22", reaching 36". #222 started the year only 6.5" tall and ended the year at 16.75". Both "lost" some height in the last measurement due to replanting to the permanent location and placement of the reference pin.

All sequoias will be protected from the wind this upcoming winter similar to the last year method. The ones that are larger than 2 feet tall will have metal posts with burlap around them and the smaller ones will have foam cones.

Placing burlap around larger sequoias

Part 2. The park

This is a summary of the construction project around the sequoia park.

Update on the map, version 1.1:

Area zoomed on the trees:

The salmon colored area was cleared of trees. Darker gray is the road accessible by a small tractor. Light gray is a walking trail. Individual giant sequoias are marked with a circle with a number inside. Numbers correspond to the ones listed in the height table. Other miscellaneous trees are marked on the maps as well. Nursery area is the place for very young trees in small containers. The stream is in blue.

The forrest was cut and mostly burnt in place:

Clearing a patch for future park site, Spring/Summer 2016

The access road (darker gray) is made of the large gravel on the steeper slopes and just a dirt road on flat parts. Parts of the steep slopes had to be reinforced with 1-2 foot large stone to slow down the erosion:

Gravel road with reinforcement, November 2016

The (lighter gray) trail on the map picture above is made of small gravel in the open areas and without gravel inside the woods.

A John Deere Gator was heavily used in the construction of the side walks and various irrigation channels. Summer 2016

In the woods there is enough old leaves and other litter making them not muddy during rain.

A few dozen steps were built this past summer and autumn to make it more passable during winter:

Making steps on the trail, 2016

Some steeper slopes had both steps added and gravel with reinforcement with cedar:

Finally, in one place with extreme drop a half-bridge was built with concrete pillars to allow passage:

Finished reinforcement bridge. Note, that a friend of mine had no difficulty keeping his pristine shoes and clothes clear of mud while accessing one of the deepest parts of the trail. September 2016. 

A small bridge over the stream was built in the Fall of 2015. Without such a bridge it was very difficult to get across, especially when it was wet. Climbing into the stream ditch was quite unpleasant.

Bridge over the stream, built in the Fall of 2015.

Conclusion

The project is going strong. More sequoias will be germinated in the upcoming winter. New species of conifers will be sought out and planted next year. Once the construction of the house is done then more trees will go around the land to complete the one-of-a-kind sequoia park in the US Midwest.

Appendix 

Need to record Nursery trees:

Leader in trouble

The amazing leader #38 has lost over half of its volume over the last four weeks.

#38 on August 14, 2016

#38 on September 11, 2016

The signs of damage can be seen on the August picture but the spread of the disease dramatically picked up in the last two weeks. The change from last week to this was the top of the tree started to get damage as well:

Brown spots on top of #38, September 11, 0216

I have started spraying this and other trees with Dakonil 4 days ago. The reason I wasn't not spraying them before was the ready-to-spray containers were too expensive to put on a larger tree like this. I also did not experience a larger tree to get damaged so severely over a relatively short period of time. Now I purchased vast quantity of Dakonil in concentrated from Amazon for $14 for 16 oz, which is enough for 64 gallons of diluted spray. Interestingly, Sequoia is listed in the included booklet as one of the plants for which it is recommended.

Unfortunately, this may be too late for the leader. It loses needles on a scale that can be observed from one day to another. I am planning to spray it every other day or so. A minor positive news is that it continued to grow upwards, adding 0.5 of an inch for the past week.

The rest of the sequoias continued minor growth but the Fall is definitely knocking on the door. The night temperatures started going into the 50s. Day temperatures are still swinging pretty wild, from higher 80s to mid-60s.

One unexpected growth happened with #104. As a part of the acclamation to the new conditions it turned pale green-yellowish on the top after a few weeks after the move. The needles on top looked more like long curvy leaves. The density of these leaf-needles was much higher than normal growth. They looked like grass on top of the sequoia rather than normal looking branch and needles. The overall height also suffered because the top lead died. Then out of the middle of that "grass lawn" a very strong shoot started growing about third week of August. By September 3 it gained almost 5 inches and then after another week it added another 3.

April 28.25

31.5

31.5

32

32

33

Aug 14 31.5

Sept 3 36.25

Sept  11 39.5

#104 with a strong lead late in growing seasons on Sept 11, 2016

The rest of the strong samples added about half of an inch and weaker ones stayed at the same height as last week.

Also, I have now started tracking a few strongest 2016 seedlings.  #264 sample that was moved early in the season currently stands at 9.5 inches. The rest are between 3 and 7 inches.

#264 Strongest 2016 seedling on September 11, 2016

New 2016 seedlings from start till now

This is a reply to The Arid Arborist - Dew Harvest, but I thought it would be useful as a post as well.

Ah! The nemesis of young sequoias is the early days. The "recipe" I found so far is to place newly germinated seeds in containers indoors. I use grow lights and a gentle breeze of a large fan moving the air in the room but not directed at the seedlings directly.

Based on many unsuccessful attempts, it looks like freshly cleaned containers (with soap), a few sprays of chlorothalonil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorothalonil, sold in Earl May) on a mix of peat moss with about 10% of medium size perlite. Consistency of a wet sponge. I also put a few small rocks at the bottom of the containers. Without the rocks peat moss/perlite continue to wash out of the container. I had some containers with more than half of the material washed out.

I do not water them from above! The drier the seed and the place where it connects with the white root, the better. Instead, I have a rectangular pan that is just deep enough that when I submerge the container the water goes to about 1 inch from the top. The idea here is to have the lower part of the root wet while leaving top part dry. I got this pan in a hardware store in the masonry department. Its original use is for making cement mixture. I used to use a small bucket for the same purpose but it was very tedious to do it with each individual container. Now I fill the pan with water and then submerge an entire tray with 98 containers for 5 minutes. Then I lift it up and let the excess water run off.

With this method I had minimal number of young sequoias dampening off. Still happens, but not as bad.

By far the worst damage was done by a mouse that killed about 20 by digging in the containers. I built a cage that harbored one 98 sample tray over winter and early Spring. It is made out of 1x1" pieces of wood with a 1/4" steel mesh and a plexiglass top sheet that seals the box.

I also tried just droping a bunch of seeds in a large 15L container filled with the same mixture outdoors this summer. There were many germinations but 100% perished within a few days of germination. I went through over a 100 seeds like that.

When I had about 120 seedlings standing at 2-3 inches I took them outside in a moderate shade. I also did this gradually over a week (bringing in and out in early May).

They were doing very well for the first few weeks. A lot of them got to about 4-5" but then a few different diseases started hitting them. It looked like the brown rust, purple tint and black dots were jumping from one to another very quickly. I kept removing the ones that died but probably not fast enough.

2016 crop has been thinning down. Black containers to the right of the trays are "dead soldiers". Aug 2, 2016

As of today I have about 30-40 that are still viable. Just a couple look very healthy. One in particular was separated early on from the rest and placed into a large container. I moved it to the woods where I am planting permanently. There it grew to 7" tall and it also has a very good volume of side branches.

2016 new seedling that was moved from the rest an into a larger container. It's about 7" tall Sept 5, 2016

I would love to do this again, but realistically, I ran out of space on the 1 acre of clearing. It is extremely difficult to clear out the forrest here. If I knew what I would be facing I would not have started it this Spring.

I will add these notes to the recent post. 

Show must go on

The oldest #15 sequoia died. The demise was fast - from the first signs of trouble to complete death about one week.

September 2016, #15 is dead

There was a hole in the ground about 3 meters from the tree. The likeliest hypothesis is that an animal dug a tunnel under the tree and destroyed the roots.

The vast majority of the trees continued strong growth throughout the second half of the summer. Most have doubled in height and some younger ones tripled.

The leader #38 exceeded 4 feet currently standing just shy of 50 inches. It added a little over 20 inches, which corresponds to 70% growth. This is a permanently planted tree. It is not surprising because at the time of the moving from a container into the ground it was one of the strongest and it continued it's growth with a much large root volume available. It does show the signs of trouble. The inner volume of needles turned rusty brown and dozens of branches were removed. It is not as healthy as it was at the peak of its growth in June-July but the top continues to look very healthy and growth continues into the Fall.

The leader in absolute height gain is #212, a three year old sample, that added 22.5 inches. #212 is firmly among strongest even in the 4-year-old tree camp standing at 36.5 inches. It has absolutely no damage throughout its entire volume, completely green.

From the percentile growth #219, a struggling last year sample more than tripled, currently standing at 18.5 inches. It started this year at 6 inches. Although some old damage is still visible it is definitely turning into a contender.

Next step in the saga is replanting of the 2015-2016 winter germinations into larger pots. Small 9cm containers have very high rate of seedling dying. The hypothesis is that the very small root volume does not provide enough buffer for water and close proximity of sick samples to the healthy ones leads to the deceases quickly jumping across and spreading. Two seedlings from this year batch that were separated and moved in larger containers away from two main trays are doing significantly better than the rest.

The Map v1.0

The trees are growing well for the most part. There are a few exceptions. In order to track the growth a little better and in general provide a better overview of the experiment, here is a very rough map of the habitat. When Google Maps updates the image to include the cleared area it will be possible to create a more precise map. So, here is the map version 1.0:

Iowa sequoia park map 1.0 June 2016

The hill was cleared in such a way to provide most protection from the strong Iowa winter northerly winds. The area was cleared of the trees deep enough to the south so that the sun could easily reach all trees in the middle of a day. The only trees that get sunlight after noon and into the evening are #71, #39 and less so #118 on the east end. #215 on the west end gets morning sun, which lasts till about noon.

It's too soon to make strong correlations but the trees that got more sun grew a little more that the ones on the east and west ends of the park.

Most of the growth this past week came from the trees that are still staying behind in the old nursery. The conditions in the old nursery are such that the trees get direct sun starting at 9AM and till about 3PM. Some of them are also illuminated by the late sun after 7PM from the west this year after two huge trees were taken down on the west side.

The permanently planted at the old site #38 keeps growing very fast both in height and volume. It added 2.5 inches and exceeded 40" mark. It is really quite a nice looking tree:

#38 approaching 4 years. June 24, 2016

The absolute winner for this period was #212. It grew a very long lead by astonishing 5" in 12 days.

#212 approaching 3 years. June 23, 2016

Another very strong growth happened with #207, which grew 3 inches that amounts to 125% growth for the season.

#207 approaching 3 years. June 23, 2016

The percent winner for the year is #219, which grew from 6 to 14.5 inches this season. It represents almost a 150% growth:

#219 approaching 3 years. June 23, 2016

In other news, 4 germination containers were forgotten for almost a month after a a period of a week with no additional germinations. They were stored in the shade but the temperatures over last several weeks were into mid and even high 90s F. One way or another it was conducive to shaking up the dormancy:

June 2016 germinations

Since there was too little time to place them in the individual containers, all 20 of them were put in one large pot:

June 2016 germinated seeds were placed in one large container 

First results from the Iowa Sequoia Park

Finally, after two months of vigorous activities the park is beginning to take shape. Most of the first wave sequoias have been moved to their permanent homes.

#31 during move on May 27, 2016. Extraction from plastic container.

#31 during move on May 27, 2016. Filling with black dirt.

#31 during move on May 27, 2016. Making a mound.

#31 permanently planted. June 11, 2016

Almost all sequoias experienced some level of stress during the move. The biggest ones had the most drooping of the top branches and especially the leading shoots. One two year old sequoia experienced no visible signs of discomfort. It can be attributed to the fact that the three year olds had roots going outside of the 2-foot containers through the bottom and some even through the drainage holes on sides. The two year old had only very minor root sticking from the bottom. Since older ones had some roots broken upon removal from temporary holes they experienced shortage in water supply and dropped.

#63 stressed after the move. Lead shoot is bent pointing down in the middle of this picture.

However, all sequoias so far bounced back within two weeks of being in the new homes.

The most troubled sample at this point is a former leader #34. It had a history of a very late start last Spring when it started to bud early and got hit with a freeze. It eventually started growing and remained in the top five for the year. This season looks worse than last. For an unknown reason it shows almost no signs of new growth. It's not dead yet with a substantial portion of the volume remaining dark green from previous years, but there are no visible changes this year so far. #34 still holds a respectable spot #7 in overall height due to its previous success but the future looks bleak. It was the only surviving sample that lost height over winter, currently standing just above 28".

#34 on June 11, 2016. Approaching 4 years. This sample is not growing this season.

In addition to #34 troubles another two-year old, #217 got moved into the #0 (Dead) folder. It was struggling last year and was by far the smallest and weakest. There is only one remaining sample in that age range that remains questionable. #220 was accounted for dead for several weeks but an unexpected lead appeared in the last two weeks going from underneath dead looking ball of brown needles.

#220 on June 11, 2016. The weakest of two year olds.

The remainder of two year olds are doing exceptionally well. One young tree more than doubled (!) between start of the season in April and now, early June. #219 grew 6.75", which represent 112% growth since last Fall. It went from 6" to 12.75".

#219 on June 11, 2016. Two and a half years.

One two-year-old #214 grew an amazing 8.5" in the same period. It was a reasonably strong sample last season but in the first 8 weeks of this season it averaged a little over 1" per week. It currently stands at 21", getting in range of the middle of the pack of the three-year-old trees. Not far behind it is #212 that added 8" and stands at the same 21" of height.

#212 on June 11, 2016. Two and a half years old.

From the absolute growth perspective, #38 is a clear winner. It added 9.5" standing above the rest at 38.5". It jumped four places to take the overall lead. #38 was permanently planted in May last Spring, so it had the luxury unavailable to any other trees till now. It was not doing exceptionally well last growing season, clearly getting adjusted to the new home. The dividends are paying now.

#38 on June 11, 2016. Permanently planted in May 2015. Current leader at three and a half years old, 38 inches.

On average, most trees added about 5" of height. Five trees stand above 30" mark and the middle of the pack is between 20 and 28 inches.

Height chart on June 11, 2016

A new crop of late 2015 early 2016 sequoias is growing mostly in shade. There are total of 75 new contenders.

Approximately 75 new 2016 season sequoia seedlings.

In addition to sequoias a few Norway Spruces, Ponderosa pines and Oriental spruces were planted around the park.

Norway Spruce June 11, 2016. About 3 years old.

Finally, sequoias imported from California are not doing well. All nine are drooping their branches and color is changing more to yellow. These trees were not planted yet but rather moved into the woods. It is unclear what is causing them to stress like that.

California sequoias not doing well on June 11, 2016