Coastal Redwood Wintering

[Peter Smith]

I have several (3) coast redwoods in this rather inhospitable upstate NY climate. I generally let them get exposed to light frosts in the fall, and eventually move them into an unheated mudroom that stays between about 35-45 F most of the winter. From talking to Brent Walston, these trees do get exposed to frosts and occasional freezes in their native environment so I don't worry about the top growth...but I don't think letting the roots freeze is a good idea.

For seedlings, I'd definitely be more cautious for the first winter or two. But I don't have any experience with really small/young ones.

That's encouraging. Ya, I'm planning on being really carefully with them until they're more established. How old were your trees when you first got them?

 

[coh]

The oldest one, I've had since 2007, came from Brent as a seedling. I don't know how old it was at the time, gonna guess 2-3 years? But it already had some decent size to it. Doesn't look like he sells them anymore, so I can't confirm the age/size. I was able to get really strong growth on this one for a number of years, to establish a decent size base (4+"). But the last couple of years it has been struggling, the root system seems weak. Maybe this climate is too harsh for it, I don't know.

The other two are much older, collected trees.