After a replant my Giant Sequoia is turning brown, why? Please help!

[nord]

I have a Giant Sequoia that I have been growing in a pot for 3 1/2 years. It started as a tiny seedling only 1 inch tall and grew during that time to be about 2 feet tall.
It has always been green and never a hint of brown.
It seemed like the tree stopped growing taller, very little new growth, so I recently replanted it into a 16 gallon pot.
I left the original bulb of soil intact and just put that bulb down into the new soil.
For the first week or so all seemed ok and I only watered the tree once a week as I had before for the last 3 1/2 years.
But by the end of the second week the tree started to turn brown.
The replant was on 5/3/25 and it is now 7/17/25.
I thought maybe the new soil was drying out too fast and it had been pretty hot here in San Diego, so for the last two weeks I started to water it every couple of days when the soil seemed dry if I stick my finger down about 6 inches.
But it continues to brown. The new pot is just a bigger version of the same plastic pot I had before which has excellent drainage.
Below are pics of the tree right before the repotting in the smaller pot, right after the repotting on 5/25 and how it looks today on 7/17/25.
I also included two pics at the end which show the new growth that is occurring on the tree since the replant.
I am seeing new branch buds starting to form on the trunk and the top of the tree has grown almost 3 inches in these 2 1/2 months.
Hopefully the new growth is a good sign?
Please help me save my tree! Her name is Lolita because she was so small when I first planted her.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Where are you located? Please post this information and your USDA Plant hardiness zone in your icon so we can help you best.

It looks like the tree was repotted late and took a hit due to root reduction or damage and is now recovering slowly.

These are pretty hardy trees. Water when needed, fertilize very lightly only after the tree recovers.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[nord]

Where are you located? Please post this information and your USDA Plant hardiness zone in your icon so we can help you best.

It looks like the tree was repotted late and took a hit due to root reduction or damage and is now recovering slowly.

These are pretty hardy trees. Water when needed, fertilize very lightly only after the tree recovers.

Cheers
DSD sends

I am located in Santee, California (92071) which is in the East County of San Diego nearer the desert area. An online search of my zone says Santee is located in Zone 10a.

 

[Ruddigger]

You repotted in summer. You should be repotting conifers in your area in late winter/early spring

 

[leatherback]

stop worrying. With the new growth on top and some buds opening on the trunk, the tree is showing it is over the hill. Just water enough, be gentle with fertilizer and .. done.

 

[nord]

You repotted in summer. You should be repotting conifers in your area in late winter/early spring

I didn't know. I repotted it in the beginning of spring at the beginning of May so I thought it would be perfect to catch it before the growth cycle began. The tree always started its growth cycle in May. Can it be saved?

 

[nord]

stop worrying. With the new growth on top and some buds opening on the trunk, the tree is showing it is over the hill. Just water enough, be gentle with fertilizer and .. done.

But what about all those branches that are turning brown? Will they die and fall off? Will the tree have enough branches left for proper photosynthesis?

 

[leatherback]

These branches might die,or they might pop new buds. Time will tell.

 

[Tieball]

I am located in Santee, California (92071) which is in the East County of San Diego nearer the desert area. An online search of my zone says Santee is located in Zone 10a.

Add this information to your Account Details.

 

[Russ1]

If, as you say, did not mess with the roots and basically just slip potted the tree it is possible that the root ball could dry out if you water the surrounding soil and not the root ball it self. since the roots have not grown into the new soil they may not get enough water. I always tease the root tips out a bit to give them a head start and water the root ball for a while. I have seen this happen, wet new soil but dry root ball.
You could try adding something like SuperThrive to the water to help with promoting root growth.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@nord
The damage has been done, nothing will change that. In zone 10, May is not beginning of spring. Your area is nearly frost free, likely you should have repotted in February.

Second error is that you did not tease apart or open up the old root ball. This creates a lump of old media that dries out at a different rate than the new soil in the pot. This makes watering complicated. If old media is too dry or too wet , you have no easy way to know. Just moving a root ball to a larger pot without working out the roots is called "slip potting" and is poor practice for perennial trees, fine for annual vegetables and annuals flowers that are not going to be around for years.

Sequoia resent root disturbance. I would leave it alone, as is for 2 years, then repot in cool weather, February or March. Talk to SanDiego bonsai growers for timing advice. I'm in Illinois, a climate quite different than yours, though I have traveled widely.

No slip potting, do proper bonsai root work. This will be maybe 2027 or even later. Plan ahead. Done right, you should have no repeat episodes of browning.

 

[nord]

@nord
The damage has been done, nothing will change that. In zone 10, May is not beginning of spring. Your area is nearly frost free, likely you should have repotted in February.

Second error is that you did not tease apart or open up the old root ball. This creates a lump of old media that dries out at a different rate than the new soil in the pot. This makes watering complicated. If old media is too dry or too wet , you have no easy way to know. Just moving a root ball to a larger pot without working out the roots is called "slip potting" and is poor practice for perennial trees, fine for annual vegetables and annuals flowers that are not going to be around for years.

Sequoia resent root disturbance. I would leave it alone, as is for 2 years, then repot in cool weather, February or March. Talk to SanDiego bonsai growers for timing advice. I'm in Illinois, a climate quite different than yours, though I have traveled widely.

No slip potting, do proper bonsai root work. This will be maybe 2027 or even later. Plan ahead. Done right, you should have no repeat episodes of browning.

The previous soil held moisture well which is why I only had to water once a week. The new soil seems to dry out fairly fast. And to be honest, when I was repotting I did flick the outer soil off the root ball with my hand to expose the external roots but left the main body of the bulb intact. I guess my question is, will the tree survive? Since it has new growth that seems to be continuing, especially on the top which seems to keep growing taller and expanding is this a good sign?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Sorry you are having trouble with your tree. What seems to be described is a set of common issues many of us make when first starting out.

One of the key tenets in bonsai is using media that has continuous moisture holding properties throughout. This the exchange of oxygen and water is identical throughout. In other words to ensure the media one is replacing matches the media that exists in the rootball.

If the outside media is too dry the root tips, the key detriment and water gathering parts of the roots get too dry, quickly affecting tree health, while the interior is too wet.

Repotting out of season exacerbates this situation. Fertilizing afterwards makes the situation worse.

Hope that helps explain the situation.

As for future health of the tree, we can’t predict that. Be cautiously optimistic and use moderation as your guidelines henceforth

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[rockm]

Not to pile on but there is another thing to consider that is likely a contributing factor. Moving to a container that is larger means more soil volume

if the container is a lot larger than the root mass being put in it, the soil around that root mass is considerable. While the soil that is already colonized by roots will dry out faster. The surrounding soil will remain wetter for longer

That can inhibit or even begin to kill off the roots that constant wet will inhibit roots that try to cross over from the colonized zone.

This is pretty technical stuff but bottom line don’t slip pot into pots or container that are a lot larger than the existing root mass. Putting a one gallon pot into a five gallon pot is asking for trouble

Try to up pot into a container that has roughly a half inch to an inch of space around the roots.

 

[Icarus]

In my opinion you needed to trim the root ball before repotting. When I repotted my trees after two years they looked the same as yours and I had to lift them, trim 50% of the root ball and repot. Before root pruning my Seqouia dendron Giganteums had a root ball like a spring which followed the circumfrance of the pot and made it impossible for the roots to spread out.

All but one survived.

I kept a root as a keep sake to remind me to trim my roots.

I have a thread, and try to keep it up to date.

Icarus - Sequoia dendron giganteum (Redwood)​

I

Thread 'Icarus - Sequoia dendron giganteum (Redwood)'

Aug 7, 2023

My efforts growing Sequoia from seed.

Started with a bag of 50 seeds and sucessfully managed to get 24 to germinate.

• Icarus
• Replies: 31
• Forum: Other Conifers

• 

 

[Wulfskaar]

I think if you have some new growth, that's a good sign. Just follow what Leo in N E Illinois said. Let it recover a couple years, then do a proper repot.

 

[Icarus]

I think if you have some new growth, that's a good sign. Just follow what Leo in N E Illinois said. Let it recover a couple years, then do a proper repot.

In two years your tree could grow four feet tall, mine grew 8 feet in four years. The photo shows the one tree I never lifted, pruned and repotted.