I've been growing dawn redwoods for a number of years. Their growth habit really is more weed-like than tree like! They are hard to keep up with.
This planting is going into year 2 so I figured I'd post what I got and how I got it
I started a bunch of fresh seed back in October of 2018. The seed was fresh and I got something like 90% germination! Same seed packet, as near same sowing procedure as I could manage only yielded like 10% germination this past fall
There was some attrition...mostly my cat likes to chew on any plant that looks fuzzy! But, by mid December I still had a number of strong seedlings. Many of the stronger seedlings were growing roots out of the mesh of the seed started pods. So I moved them. I think I ended up moving roughly 13 seedlings to a drip tray I had poked a few holes in the bottom of.
I did loose a few seedlings after that. Some to the cat, but some I think had too many broken roots after trying to separate them from the mesh.
Around late April of 2019 I thought it would be fun to plant them in a forest arrangement.
This was the plan for these seeds all along. I've had other dawn redwoods before, but I wanted to try a forest planting in a very specific "pot". I would have started the seed in this pot from day one except that I didn't have it carved out at the time and I was impatient to grow some seed
The rocks are petrified wood. They are there more for erosion control than any attempt to set a scene. If I have the time, I hold the pot level when I water as it soaks in more uniformly. When I'm in a hurry, I dump water at the very top and then just uphill of each rock. The rocks help the water pool long enough to soak in and helps keep the soil in place.
And before anyone complains...yes, the soil is potting mix! Mostly peat and some chopped up bark. I don't have anything to tie down to. The heavy organic mix provides a lot of bite for the roots to keep the trees in place. I'm not worried about mud...the trees drink enough that the small volume tends to dry out too fast. Breakdown isn't a concern either as I expect to have to repot at least once a year to tame the roots on these weeds!
Here is the same planting in mid August.
Up until this point, the planting was growing inside in a bright kitchen next to a large sliding glass door that faces south east. This was the last picture I took before moving it outside to harden off in preparation for winter.
The downside to a wooden pot is exposure to UV. Cypress tends to turn a dull grey in UV...something I want to prevent as long as I can. That's why I kept it inside as long as I could. When I moved it outside to start hardening off, I wrapped the cypress pot in foil to protect it from UV. After seeing how much of a root mat there was, I think this year I'll just pull the planting out of the knee and put it in a plastic tray when it's time to start hardening off.
I don't remember exactly when and I can't find any pictures I may have taken, but at some point, the trees went to sleep and got moved into the garage for the winter. I left them in their pot and watered them about every other week to keep them from desiccating.
Today when I went to check on them, they were waking up!
So, I decided it was time for a repot I figured the roots would need some trimming...and the pot needed a light sanding and fresh coat of tung oil. I also wanted to re-arrange the trees for better growth.
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but one of the lower trees is a double trunk. The second trunk was too shaded and suffering so I wanted to turn that tree so the smaller trunk was outward more. Also, the tree in the middle got stunted somehow. It gave up on its leader and grew thicker branches instead. There are some big buds where the leader should be, but they never extended for some reason.
The planting came out of the pot easily and intact. I had sprayed some rubber spray coating on the inside of the pot area where the soil would be in contact with the wood to protect the wood from too much moisture. It worked great! The roots can't really grasp the rubber so everything came out real easy and clean!
You can see the mat of roots already. And remember these are seedlings that are just a year old, grown mostly indoors, and in a small volume! Hence...weeds
I didn't take composition much into consideration this repot. I mostly rearranged for the type of growth I'm hoping for.
I figured I could re-arrange the trees so the stunted one was at the top...maybe try to style that one to look like something growing higher up the mountain where conditions are harsh and contorted it a bit.
Here's the double trunk one after a major root trim. I could still probably trim more even.
Long term , I'd like to lay that smaller trunk down and turn it into a raft...or maybe make it look like a partially uprooted tree that was able to stabilize. I've seen numerous trees with this kind of apical dominance in the wild where the main trunk is down or at a severe angle and the branches turn into new "trees". I'm thinking maybe that sort of thing.
Anyway, here's the forest after today's repot...again, potted more for the growth I'm hoping for than composition.
It's less 2 dimensional in person although there is a lack of dimension due to the narrowness of the planting space.
The even spacing is intentional for this season. This season I want to try and force more branching to try and help with the thin depth of field.
The "wedge" of tree that is there now is distracting too, I know. For now I'm going to leave it and give everybody some chance to bush out a bit. If the stunted guy stays stunted, that may set the ultimate height. It will always look weird if the down hill guys are taller than the most uphill tree. If that happens, I may have to set the height of everyone else of the height of that runt or grow a replacement. I don't have any baby redwoods in the pipe at the moment, but I could maybe sneak in a few baby bald cypress that I have I kinda want to do that anyway just to see who notices!
I'd really like the overall planting to emphasize the height of these trees but I also have a limited amount of time before these weeds outgrow this smallish pot I wouldn't be surprised if I'm already repotting this again in July just to control some of the growth!
Anyway, not what most would consider 'bonsai" at the moment, but thought I would share my progress thus far anyway. The planting is currently in a large south east facing window in my basement. It will very likely live inside most of this season again (I know...the heresy!) to try and slow its growth a bit. It will need to go outside late summer/early fall to harden off for the winter though. With any luck, next year I can start to compose the scene I'm envisioning.
This planting is going into year 2 so I figured I'd post what I got and how I got it
I started a bunch of fresh seed back in October of 2018. The seed was fresh and I got something like 90% germination! Same seed packet, as near same sowing procedure as I could manage only yielded like 10% germination this past fall
There was some attrition...mostly my cat likes to chew on any plant that looks fuzzy! But, by mid December I still had a number of strong seedlings. Many of the stronger seedlings were growing roots out of the mesh of the seed started pods. So I moved them. I think I ended up moving roughly 13 seedlings to a drip tray I had poked a few holes in the bottom of.
I did loose a few seedlings after that. Some to the cat, but some I think had too many broken roots after trying to separate them from the mesh.
Around late April of 2019 I thought it would be fun to plant them in a forest arrangement.
This was the plan for these seeds all along. I've had other dawn redwoods before, but I wanted to try a forest planting in a very specific "pot". I would have started the seed in this pot from day one except that I didn't have it carved out at the time and I was impatient to grow some seed
The rocks are petrified wood. They are there more for erosion control than any attempt to set a scene. If I have the time, I hold the pot level when I water as it soaks in more uniformly. When I'm in a hurry, I dump water at the very top and then just uphill of each rock. The rocks help the water pool long enough to soak in and helps keep the soil in place.
And before anyone complains...yes, the soil is potting mix! Mostly peat and some chopped up bark. I don't have anything to tie down to. The heavy organic mix provides a lot of bite for the roots to keep the trees in place. I'm not worried about mud...the trees drink enough that the small volume tends to dry out too fast. Breakdown isn't a concern either as I expect to have to repot at least once a year to tame the roots on these weeds!
Here is the same planting in mid August.
Up until this point, the planting was growing inside in a bright kitchen next to a large sliding glass door that faces south east. This was the last picture I took before moving it outside to harden off in preparation for winter.
The downside to a wooden pot is exposure to UV. Cypress tends to turn a dull grey in UV...something I want to prevent as long as I can. That's why I kept it inside as long as I could. When I moved it outside to start hardening off, I wrapped the cypress pot in foil to protect it from UV. After seeing how much of a root mat there was, I think this year I'll just pull the planting out of the knee and put it in a plastic tray when it's time to start hardening off.
I don't remember exactly when and I can't find any pictures I may have taken, but at some point, the trees went to sleep and got moved into the garage for the winter. I left them in their pot and watered them about every other week to keep them from desiccating.
Today when I went to check on them, they were waking up!
So, I decided it was time for a repot
I figured the roots would need some trimming...and the pot needed a light sanding and fresh coat of tung oil. I also wanted to re-arrange the trees for better growth.It's hard to tell from the pictures, but one of the lower trees is a double trunk. The second trunk was too shaded and suffering so I wanted to turn that tree so the smaller trunk was outward more. Also, the tree in the middle got stunted somehow. It gave up on its leader and grew thicker branches instead. There are some big buds where the leader should be, but they never extended for some reason.
The planting came out of the pot easily and intact. I had sprayed some rubber spray coating on the inside of the pot area where the soil would be in contact with the wood to protect the wood from too much moisture. It worked great! The roots can't really grasp the rubber so everything came out real easy and clean!
You can see the mat of roots already. And remember these are seedlings that are just a year old, grown mostly indoors, and in a small volume! Hence...weeds
I didn't take composition much into consideration this repot. I mostly rearranged for the type of growth I'm hoping for.
I figured I could re-arrange the trees so the stunted one was at the top...maybe try to style that one to look like something growing higher up the mountain where conditions are harsh and contorted it a bit.
Here's the double trunk one after a major root trim. I could still probably trim more even.
Long term , I'd like to lay that smaller trunk down and turn it into a raft...or maybe make it look like a partially uprooted tree that was able to stabilize. I've seen numerous trees with this kind of apical dominance in the wild where the main trunk is down or at a severe angle and the branches turn into new "trees". I'm thinking maybe that sort of thing.
Anyway, here's the forest after today's repot...again, potted more for the growth I'm hoping for than composition.
It's less 2 dimensional in person although there is a lack of dimension due to the narrowness of the planting space.
The even spacing is intentional for this season. This season I want to try and force more branching to try and help with the thin depth of field.
The "wedge" of tree that is there now is distracting too, I know. For now I'm going to leave it and give everybody some chance to bush out a bit. If the stunted guy stays stunted, that may set the ultimate height. It will always look weird if the down hill guys are taller than the most uphill tree. If that happens, I may have to set the height of everyone else of the height of that runt or grow a replacement. I don't have any baby redwoods in the pipe at the moment, but I could maybe sneak in a few baby bald cypress that I have
I kinda want to do that anyway just to see who notices!I'd really like the overall planting to emphasize the height of these trees but I also have a limited amount of time before these weeds outgrow this smallish pot
I wouldn't be surprised if I'm already repotting this again in July just to control some of the growth!Anyway, not what most would consider 'bonsai" at the moment, but thought I would share my progress thus far anyway. The planting is currently in a large south east facing window in my basement. It will very likely live inside most of this season again (I know...the heresy!) to try and slow its growth a bit. It will need to go outside late summer/early fall to harden off for the winter though. With any luck, next year I can start to compose the scene I'm envisioning.
