Redwood family progression

[LittleDingus]

There were some questions about growth rates in another thread:

Growth rate

So 1 plant grows at rate x per year 2 of those plants will produce double that But what if you compare a plant with one tip vs a plant with 2 tips. If its basically 2 conjoined plants shouldnt it grow 2x per year? Does it?

www.bonsainut.com

The basic question was:

So 1 plant grows at rate x per year
2 of those plants will produce double that
But what if you compare a plant with one tip vs a plant with 2 tips. If its basically 2 conjoined plants shouldnt it grow 2x per year? Does it?

Welp, as it so happens, one of my coastal redwoods seedlings had some growth issues over the winter of 2018 when it was just a newly sprouted seedling. It was growing under red/blue LEDs but I believe the intense blue light stunted the leader. I've had this happen to a couple dawn redwood seedlings under the same lights as well.

I couldn't find any earlier pictures of the tree, but here it is in August of 2019.



The first picture is a top down view and you can see that the leader stunted and many branches formed to try and take its place...it's what these guys do At the time I thought it would be interesting to try a candelabra style since it seemed that's what it wanted now anyway. I knew if one leader grew too dominant to early, the others would just become branches and possibly even die back. So I wired a number of the new branches to point up so they all had apical tips!

As it turns out...that gives me two trees I could compare with respect to the growth rate question. I have another trees from that same set of seed that did NOT form multiple apexes. That other tree has never been more than about 3' away from this tree. They're from the same set of seed. They get the same water/fertilizer routine. They get the same sunlight. The only differences are genetics and number of apices...so yeah, not a totally controlled experiment, but a happy coincidence none-the-less

Here are the two trees side by side:



Some things to notice: The multiple apex tree has 6 apical branches. It has a denser appearance than it's brother. But it is also a little shorter. The funny brown color seems to be a genetic variance in that tree. It did this last winter too...in fact, last winter I thought I might have killed it as the entire tree was that brown color! The brown is from being to close to the lights. It's the same distance from the same model of light as its brother, but the light seems to be intense enough to burn out its chlorophyll in the winter. Last year, it was completely brown for about 3 months before it warmed up enough to move it outside. Then it greened right back up with no problems! The brown is not the brown or dried up leaves. Also, the foliage feels just like the green foliage...just brown.

The lower ~2" of trunk have been mostly buried the past 2 growing seasons. I could see there is more foliage overall, but the multiple trunks were all mostly thinner than its single trunk brother. I wanted to see what the buried trunk was doing because one would expect, with more foliage above, it to be thicker than its single trunk brother. The tree needed to go into a wider bag to prevent the wind from blowing it over anyway, so, today, I repotted it.

I moved it into a 10 gallon grow bag but planted it shallower. The 10 gallon grow bags I have are ~16" wide. That'll be a much more stable base in our spring/summer winds. Folding the bag in half cuts the volume to 5 gallons. I didn't quire fold the bag in half. I dropped the depth to about 7". So there should be roughly twice as much volume for root growth now even at the reduced height.

Here's the root ball as first depotted.



It's hard to see in the picture (it's pink because the grow lights for these trees are on the wall behind me in the garage) but there are a number of live growth tips on the bottom of the root ball. I did not comb out or reduce the bottom of the ball at all. The root ball was reduced about 2" in height but all the reduction came from the top of the ball. I did remove ~2" off the top and combed what was left of the top about an additional 1" deep but left the remaining root ball completely untouched.

Here's what I uncovered!



It's hard to see, but that last picture is of a burl! I am super excited about the burl!!! I was going to grow these guys out a couple more years before trying to induce a burl on purpose. I've been researching into whether it was possible to purposely trigger a burl or not. I'm still curious...but I have a burl!

By contrast, here's its brother with a single trunk.



It's pretty clear there is additional trunk thickening as expected. The burl adds to it on one side of the trunk...but looks like one side of the trunk only. Anyway, I posted pictures...draw your own conclusions

And the sibling photo with new shoes on the chubbier one



While repotting, I rubbed/cut off all the extra buds that were coming from low down on the trunk...especially from the burl area. There are technically 5 trunks...but one of those branches again almost immediately so it looks like 6 trunks total. One of them is very undersized compared to the others. It's placed funny and looks like it gets shaded a lot. I did put some wire on that branch to bend it out and away a bit further from the others before bending it back up to keep a clear apex on it. I'm hoping it will thicken up some this season now.

I also started trimming the lower branches. I took everything off up to about 6". Any hanging branches below that got a trim too. I didn't touch anything above 6". Once it starts growing in the spring, I'll probably trim some more. I need to learn more about pruning these guys first. I think they are an extension species in which case, I need to be careful where/when I trim to keep buds on branches for next season's growth.

This will mostly be another grow out year. As the year progresses, I'll evaluate how much of the tree I want to start exposing. Overall, I'm quite excited for this one...and it's only 3 years old

 

[LittleDingus]

I've come across a number of candelabra trees in the wild in various places. I love how apical dominant trees can fall over and what were once branches will form up into trunks! When we were in the coastal redwood forests in California, I took a pictures of every tree I saw that grew like that! One of my favorites was this one:



It was growing over out over the road. There wasn't a good place to pull over and park for a bit. My wife thought I was crazy to park and walk back like 1/4 mile down the road just to get a picture of a tree

I had a dawn redwood that I was growing out that was inspired by this tree. I was out of town for a few days last fall and it dried up It was late enough in the fall that I was hoping it just went dormant from there. The new trunks are brittle though...I'm sure they are dead. The main trunk still looks like there might be some life in it. It didn't take up any useful space so I just set it aside for the winter. But I'm pretty sure it's not waking up



If it doesn't pull through, I'll try again...which is what I've been saving this tree for.



There were a couple of things about that first attempt I've wanted to do differently anyway. The new trunks were too close together. I was initially thinking to have the apex turn up like that one did, but, after seeing it, I think I like the jin on better. But anyway...another tree, another project!

Now, after seeing the structure of the coast redwood above and what I would like to try to do to improve that tree's candelabra look, I decided to go a little crazy with this one And, if I do it right, I can get get a replacement tree for the one that's likely dead out of the bargain as well...so, win/win!

My thinking is to wire the bottom branches to turn more or less straight horizontal and let them spoke out from the main trunk 12"-18" or more. Once they grow out far enough, I'll wire a secondary branch straight up to be an apex of each main branch. Essentially, I'll make a forest from a single tree! That might push this tree closer to topiary than bonsai...but it's all in fun

Here's my first round of wiring:



I trimmed off some redundant/unnecessary branches off the lower trunk. Then I threw on some wire. All I have is aluminum wire...I should have used the next size up on some of the branches to get them to stay more securely. I wired the branches close to flat but didn't worry about getting it perfect. I'll need more length on these branches to get them out as far as I'd like anyway...so likely more wire before fall anyway since any new growth will want to grow up!

The lower tree design has no need for the central trunk. I'll ground layer at the gap above the wired branches in the summer. That layer will replace my dead tree after a year or two of growing out.

 

[LittleDingus]

The thermometer says 63F...but, out in the sun, it feels like 75F! I took the opportunity to work out on the deck in the sun for a few hours

The big project for the day was to repot one of my coast redwoods. The two goals of the repot are 1) to not kill it! and 2) to shorten the depth of the root ball. It was in a 3 gallon grow bag with a 9" deep root ball. I was hoping to get it down below 6" with this repot.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day to work out on the deck?



This is the first of my core redwood family to be repotted. This is the coast redwood from the very first post in this thread. It will be entering it's fourth growing season this year.

It came out of the bag real easy. It's got a nice little burl forming!



Hard to see the burl in the pictures. I rubbed off a lot of buds. My hope is it continues to grow the burl...I love redwood burls

Once the root ball was combed out some, it flattened up nicely.



As nice as the day was, there was one disappointment to the day. I've been getting NAPA 8822 from the same store for a couple years now. I get a couple of bags every month or so. Up until this weekend, it has always been the nice DE. This trip, it was the softer, more claylike stuff that breaks down easily This batch is very similar to Optisorb that I've gotten from AutoZone a few years back. I do have a couple of trees in the Optisorb that grew well and I anticipate repotting this tree again next spring so I used it anyway, but this stuff does break down pretty quick The previous batches I've often just reused when repotting. In fact, I reused all the old potting mix with this tree.

After the repot, I worked from the base up the tree and removed redundant branches. Most of the branches were trimmed back last summer. What's left could use some wire but I didn't bother with that today. I'm entering 2 step season for these guys...I've had them outside a day or two here and there, but it looks like I can safely have them out all this week. I'm hoping tomorrow to cleanup the outside trees enough that I can start bringing the redwoods and live oaks outside during the day.

Here is the tree after the repot.




You can see how last year's growth is still perky, but the previous season's growth is a little droopy. Once they are outside for good I'll put some wire on and clean that up a bit.

I'm going to let it grow unrestricted in height again this season. I'm going to run out of headroom in the winter storage either this season or next. At some point, I'll need to trim the apex and try and bush the bottom out some. We'll see how bushy it gets on its own this year.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

The thermometer says 63F...but, out in the sun, it feels like 75F! I took the opportunity to work out on the deck in the sun for a few hours

The big project for the day was to repot one of my coast redwoods. The two goals of the repot are 1) to not kill it! and 2) to shorten the depth of the root ball. It was in a 3 gallon grow bag with a 9" deep root ball. I was hoping to get it down below 6" with this repot.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day to work out on the deck?

View attachment 357256

This is the first of my core redwood family to be repotted. This is the coast redwood from the very first post in this thread. It will be entering it's fourth growing season this year.

It came out of the bag real easy. It's got a nice little burl forming!

View attachment 357257 View attachment 357258

Hard to see the burl in the pictures. I rubbed off a lot of buds. My hope is it continues to grow the burl...I love redwood burls

Once the root ball was combed out some, it flattened up nicely.

View attachment 357259

As nice as the day was, there was one disappointment to the day. I've been getting NAPA 8822 from the same store for a couple years now. I get a couple of bags every month or so. Up until this weekend, it has always been the nice DE. This trip, it was the softer, more claylike stuff that breaks down easily This batch is very similar to Optisorb that I've gotten from AutoZone a few years back. I do have a couple of trees in the Optisorb that grew well and I anticipate repotting this tree again next spring so I used it anyway, but this stuff does break down pretty quick The previous batches I've often just reused when repotting. In fact, I reused all the old potting mix with this tree.

After the repot, I worked from the base up the tree and removed redundant branches. Most of the branches were trimmed back last summer. What's left could use some wire but I didn't bother with that today. I'm entering 2 step season for these guys...I've had them outside a day or two here and there, but it looks like I can safely have them out all this week. I'm hoping tomorrow to cleanup the outside trees enough that I can start bringing the redwoods and live oaks outside during the day.

Here is the tree after the repot.

View attachment 357260 View attachment 357261
View attachment 357262

You can see how last year's growth is still perky, but the previous season's growth is a little droopy. Once they are outside for good I'll put some wire on and clean that up a bit.

I'm going to let it grow unrestricted in height again this season. I'm going to run out of headroom in the winter storage either this season or next. At some point, I'll need to trim the apex and try and bush the bottom out some. We'll see how bushy it gets on its own this year.

Great update! I’m nearing two step season with my coastals too. Barking up nicely! Gotta love the plethora of roots.

 

[LittleDingus]

Great update! I’m nearing two step season with my coastals too. Barking up nicely! Gotta love the plethora of roots.

You keeping coastal redwoods in Michigan heartens me We have a possible move in 22...possibly to northern Illinois. That's where we're originally from so we're used to the weather there. My concern is it will become much harder to winter the coastals in Illinois. They really aren't bad to winter here with some lights in the garage. There's maybe 3 months where they cannot be outside at all...but late fall and early spring are warm enough here they can day-trip it to the outside.

That's a dawn in your avatar, right? I've been through that thread a couple of times Do you have any threads on your coastals? I did a quick forum search didn't turn any up. I'd be interested in them and how they manage winter for you.

 

[LittleDingus]

Another day, another redwood

The last of my 3 "champions" to be prepped for the growing season: sequoiadendron giganteum...giant sequoia.

Here's where we were this morning.



One or two of the lower branches may have died back...we'll see.

Same as my other "champion" redwoods from seed, the big goal was to shorten and widen the root ball. Shorter to begin preparation for pot life...wider to make the tree a little more stable in our occasional high winds. This guy is short and stout enough that it's yet to have problem in the winds. Widening the base does help with another issue though: crowding. I have a tendency to crowd this guy between taller plants and I believe the shading is contributing to the lower branches dying back. I'd like to get more light down low this grow season and test that theory.

I combed the top and bottom of the root ball to get it down to ~5" in height. I didn't intentionally trim any roots. Some did break off during the combing though. Very little compared to the total mass...maybe 10%? Combed out, they do just about cover the span of a 10 gallon grow bag folded in half. That's about 17" in diameter.



I ran out of coir and the local nursery where I get it isn't open on Sundays this time of the season. I ended up mixing in some shredded cedar mulch into the NAPA 8822 instead. This batch of NAPA, unfortunately, is the clay kind and not the DE kind. It's been find for a few of my cherry trees but I'm not terribly happy with it.



And here is the champion family all ready for another growing season!



I'm really wishing I would have put the dawn in a wider grow bag now

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

You keeping coastal redwoods in Michigan heartens me We have a possible move in 22...possibly to northern Illinois. That's where we're originally from so we're used to the weather there. My concern is it will become much harder to winter the coastals in Illinois. They really aren't bad to winter here with some lights in the garage. There's maybe 3 months where they cannot be outside at all...but late fall and early spring are warm enough here they can day-trip it to the outside.

That's a dawn in your avatar, right? I've been through that thread a couple of times Do you have any threads on your coastals? I did a quick forum search didn't turn any up. I'd be interested in them and how they manage winter for you.

Planning to start up a thread for my Coastals soon, was waiting for them to thicken up a bit and post the progression from seedling. Maybe soon I do talk about it in one of two of my videos (Great Lakes Bonsai youtube), but I'll save you the pain:
- Under lights for winter, indoors. I have t5 fluorescents for the younger ones, and a Spider Farmer 1000 for the larger two. In both cases, they do put on some growth in the winter despite being very dry indoors with our heat on all winter here in Michigan.
- Into the breezeway to start the two step at the start of March. They get much less sun and are "2-stepped" outside when temps are above 38-40 degrees F. This period simulates dormancy for them - they stall out and tolerate the damp, chilly spring.
- Fully outdoors in May, and by the end of the month heading into June they spring back into action with buds and grow remainder of the year.
- Straight into indoor lighting setup for winter around end of October... repeat.

This has worked for me for 4 years. This approach is not ideal and I do worry about simulating dormancy this way and how long their growing season is. We are also planning to move soon, and the dream would be a greenhouse setup so that I can keep above 35 degrees and have them in the greenhouse to track the actual dormant season versus my approach now.

Has worked well though - my largest was started from a seedling 4 years ago and is over an inch thick. I've also gotten successful cuttings taken from the original tree and now have 8-9 that I plan to put into a forest (honestly to limit the number of containers - trying to move away from species that can't handle our climate!).

Love your sequoia, and the whole "redwood family" idea - I'm fascinated by them too. I need to grab me a sequoia now that I think about it... thanks for the prompt. And yes - my avatar is my big Dawn!

 

[LittleDingus]

Planning to start up a thread for my Coastals soon, was waiting for them to thicken up a bit and post the progression from seedling. Maybe soon I do talk about it in one of two of my videos (Great Lakes Bonsai youtube), but I'll save you the pain:
- Under lights for winter, indoors. I have t5 fluorescents for the younger ones, and a Spider Farmer 1000 for the larger two. In both cases, they do put on some growth in the winter despite being very dry indoors with our heat on all winter here in Michigan.
- Into the breezeway to start the two step at the start of March. They get much less sun and are "2-stepped" outside when temps are above 38-40 degrees F. This period simulates dormancy for them - they stall out and tolerate the damp, chilly spring.
- Fully outdoors in May, and by the end of the month heading into June they spring back into action with buds and grow remainder of the year.
- Straight into indoor lighting setup for winter around end of October... repeat.

This has worked for me for 4 years. This approach is not ideal and I do worry about simulating dormancy this way and how long their growing season is. We are also planning to move soon, and the dream would be a greenhouse setup so that I can keep above 35 degrees and have them in the greenhouse to track the actual dormant season versus my approach now.

Has worked well though - my largest was started from a seedling 4 years ago and is over an inch thick. I've also gotten successful cuttings taken from the original tree and now have 8-9 that I plan to put into a forest (honestly to limit the number of containers - trying to move away from species that can't handle our climate!).

Love your sequoia, and the whole "redwood family" idea - I'm fascinated by them too. I need to grab me a sequoia now that I think about it... thanks for the prompt. And yes - my avatar is my big Dawn!

I'm old school...I rarely watch youtube or internet videos. Faster to read. There are some tings better in video, but I can navigate information so much faster when it's in print.

Do you do anything for humidity? The first winter the coastals were indoors under lights and did fine. The second winter they were too large for me to keep all of them indoors. I did keep on indoors though. The next season, the first trunk hardly grew at all...the tree started a second trunk instead. I think what happened is the growth buds dried out. Since redwoods are an extension species...the tree opted to start a new trunk rather than for new buds on the old trunk. I'm curious what will happen this season as there was some minor new growth on the old trunk...which is now half the size of the new trunk. I'm wondering if they will both grow now.

I have an albo-spica that I don't think I've talked much about on this thread yet. I picked up that one because its growth tips start off white then green up over time. It reminds me of the albino redwoods which are super cool! I hunted down the "christmas tree" albino when my wife took me to see the redwoods.



We ended up seeing 2-3 other albinos while we were there as well. The albo-spica is the only one I've thought about trying to root a cutting from. Otherwise, my existing trees are so small that any cutting I take doesn't give much of an advantage over starting from seed. The albo-spica is a cultivar though...not much choice BUT to clone from cuttings for that one.

...and yeah I hear you on the group plantings to save space! The past few years have been ballooning up my collection to get some fun stuff to play with. This is supposed to be my reduction year since we're hoping to move next year. We'll see how that goes...

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

I'm old school...I rarely watch youtube or internet videos. Faster to read. There are some tings better in video, but I can navigate information so much faster when it's in print.

Do you do anything for humidity? The first winter the coastals were indoors under lights and did fine. The second winter they were too large for me to keep all of them indoors. I did keep on indoors though. The next season, the first trunk hardly grew at all...the tree started a second trunk instead. I think what happened is the growth buds dried out. Since redwoods are an extension species...the tree opted to start a new trunk rather than for new buds on the old trunk. I'm curious what will happen this season as there was some minor new growth on the old trunk...which is now half the size of the new trunk. I'm wondering if they will both grow now.

I have an albo-spica that I don't think I've talked much about on this thread yet. I picked up that one because its growth tips start off white then green up over time. It reminds me of the albino redwoods which are super cool! I hunted down the "christmas tree" albino when my wife took me to see the redwoods.

View attachment 357569 View attachment 357570

We ended up seeing 2-3 other albinos while we were there as well. The albo-spica is the only one I've thought about trying to root a cutting from. Otherwise, my existing trees are so small that any cutting I take doesn't give much of an advantage over starting from seed. The albo-spica is a cultivar though...not much choice BUT to clone from cuttings for that one.

...and yeah I hear you on the group plantings to save space! The past few years have been ballooning up my collection to get some fun stuff to play with. This is supposed to be my reduction year since we're hoping to move next year. We'll see how that goes...

I mist the trees indoors when I can, and when watering I try to hit the trunk and branches (I use a turkey baster type squeeze bottle). Otherwise no enhancement to humidity. Not ideal.

I end up reducing the apex every other year so far, primarily because the lights wouldn’t reach to all foliage if it’s more than 4 feet tall.

really interesting on the albinos! My trip to Northern California was what pushed me fully into bonsai.

 

[LittleDingus]

I mist the trees indoors when I can, and when watering I try to hit the trunk and branches (I use a turkey baster type squeeze bottle). Otherwise no enhancement to humidity. Not ideal.

I end up reducing the apex every other year so far, primarily because the lights wouldn’t reach to all foliage if it’s more than 4 feet tall.

really interesting on the albinos! My trip to Northern California was what pushed me fully into bonsai.

I've got about 3' more height to go where I put them in the garage before they hit the ceiling. Lighting might be an issue though. This year, I hung the lights to light them from the side and reflect off the back wall. That got me better coverage than from the top. I would rotate the trees every 2-3 days whenever I watered them so that all sides would get some bright exposure.

Next winter I'll either need another row of lights or I'll be joining you at trimming the apex when they come it. I already have to do that with a few of my other trees

 

[LittleDingus]

My Chinese swamp cypress arrived!

...

I don't really consider them part of my redwood family in terms of this project, but thought I'd post that they arrived since I had made mention that I had ordered some.

I started a progression thread for my work with these glyptostrubus pencilis (Chinese swamp cypress) trees here:

[Dingus] glyptostrobus pensilis (Chinese swamp cypress) progression

I'm starting a thread to track some of my work with Chinese swamp cypress. This is a "new to me" species so it's likely to be a bumpy ride ;) I bought 4 these back in January. They were dormant and in bags of wet soil so I just cleaned off the old soil, root pruned 3 of them pretty hard...

www.bonsainut.com

In case anyone comes across them because of this thread...

 

[LittleDingus]

It lives!!!



It's s stupid planting...but still one of my favorites

I had a little "watering accident" late last summer. I went out of town for a few days but a mix-up in communication meant this guy didn't get watered the entire time I was gone. Luckily it typically lives indoors until the fall when I move it outside to help harden it off for the winter. It sits in a bright window that gets full sun until early afternoon though.

When I returned, everything was brown and crispy This was early September. My other dawn redwoods were putting on light growth after the summer heat. This guy just sat there. I was convinced it was dead. I kept it protected in the garage all winter and made sure the soil stayed moist and didn't freeze. Finally...well after my other dawns...it broke buds on two of the trunks! A few weeks later, all 3 main trunks broke buds. The misfit at the top finally broke buds about a week ago. And now, the tiny trunk in the back that cannot be seen in the above picture finally broke buds too!



I had some initial plans for this guy this summer...but I may just leave it alone (doubtful...these guys are weeds!).

I do have it outside for the duration. I'm not convinced it's helping recovery, but the lime tree has been in its customary position off and on as some of our nights have still been too cool for it to stay outside. I'm hoping to bring it back inside to its window where I'm used to seeing it soon.

I had a second tree that suffered the same watering accident this guy did that did not wake up That's probably for the best though...I got the scale wrong on that one and it wasn't turning out as I had hoped...so I now have a reason to try again

For reference, all trees are from seed planted circa October 2018. It typically spends from bud break until early fall inside in a bright south-east facing window. Then moves outdoors to harden off for the winter. It winters in the garage. Since it's planted in a hollowed out cypress knee, I tend to baby it to keep the knee's colors more vivid. I've been pulling the trees in the spring to lightly sand and oil the knee to keep the coloration. I'm trying to avoid the grey, weathered cypress look as long as I can. It's turning dull again...and that will speed up if I keep it outside in the UV...but I'm going to resist ripping up the trees for now...

 

[LittleDingus]

I've said it before...but I don't mind repeating myself

Dawn redwoods are weeds!

I was very worried I killed this guy in a freak, human induced drought last fall. I stressed about it all fall and winter as it sat leafless. But now the 3 main trunks are as vigorous as ever!



The misfit at the top and the second trunk of the bottom most tree aren't quite as vigorous...but they're alive!

The misfit at the top seems to want to start multiple leaders rather than make anything resembling branches!



It'll be interesting to see where that guy wants to go now!

One of the problems I have with this planting is erosion. I've tried using an inorganic mix early on, but it washed out of the "pot" too easily. I switched back to a fully organic mix: MiracleGrow potting mix. Ugh! The heresy!! Don't tell anyone lest I get banned from the site I added a couple of petrified wood pieces embedded into the soil to serve as erosion breaks. They help quite a bit, but I still lose a tiny bit of soil every watering to the point where the top tree ends up in very shallow soil after a few weeks. When I'm not in a hurry, I lay the planting horizontal and water very gently. Still, over time, the soil compacts and erodes away with the end result of getting shallower and shallower

Today, I went moss hunting. I found a couple of different types of moss that were growing in brighter to full sun areas to harvest.

I refilled what soil had eroded away. It was very nice to see lots of fresh white root tips under the rocks when I removed them I topped up the soil, watered well, then planted some moss! I used a very short dense moss in the open areas at the top and a shaggier moss under the trees at the bottom...with some blending from one type to another in an attempt to look a little more "natural". We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping it will help prevent soil erosion better than the rocks did. I know it will help with evaporation. Hopefully it doesn't cause a bigger problem with water running off rather than sinking in, though.

I'm still thinking I'm not going to do any sort of "styling" like I had planned for this year...especially on the misfit at the top! But, it's looking more and more like I'm going to need to get the pruning shears out before too long!

 

[Carol 83]

I've said it before...but I don't mind repeating myself

Dawn redwoods are weeds!

I was very worried I killed this guy in a freak, human induced drought last fall. I stressed about it all fall and winter as it sat leafless. But now the 3 main trunks are as vigorous as ever!

View attachment 373171

The misfit at the top and the second trunk of the bottom most tree aren't quite as vigorous...but they're alive!

The misfit at the top seems to want to start multiple leaders rather than make anything resembling branches!

View attachment 373173

It'll be interesting to see where that guy wants to go now!

One of the problems I have with this planting is erosion. I've tried using an inorganic mix early on, but it washed out of the "pot" too easily. I switched back to a fully organic mix: MiracleGrow potting mix. Ugh! The heresy!! Don't tell anyone lest I get banned from the site I added a couple of petrified wood pieces embedded into the soil to serve as erosion breaks. They help quite a bit, but I still lose a tiny bit of soil every watering to the point where the top tree ends up in very shallow soil after a few weeks. When I'm not in a hurry, I lay the planting horizontal and water very gently. Still, over time, the soil compacts and erodes away with the end result of getting shallower and shallower

Today, I went moss hunting. I found a couple of different types of moss that were growing in brighter to full sun areas to harvest.

I refilled what soil had eroded away. It was very nice to see lots of fresh white root tips under the rocks when I removed them I topped up the soil, watered well, then planted some moss! I used a very short dense moss in the open areas at the top and a shaggier moss under the trees at the bottom...with some blending from one type to another in an attempt to look a little more "natural". We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping it will help prevent soil erosion better than the rocks did. I know it will help with evaporation. Hopefully it doesn't cause a bigger problem with water running off rather than sinking in, though.

I'm still thinking I'm not going to do any sort of "styling" like I had planned for this year...especially on the misfit at the top! But, it's looking more and more like I'm going to need to get the pruning shears out before too long!

I like the planter a lot, but think it would look better sitting flat. To me pointing up like that, I think of a rocket ship taking off. Just my $.02, feel free to school me on my lack of vision.

 

[Apex37]

I've said it before...but I don't mind repeating myself

Dawn redwoods are weeds!

I was very worried I killed this guy in a freak, human induced drought last fall. I stressed about it all fall and winter as it sat leafless. But now the 3 main trunks are as vigorous as ever!

View attachment 373171

The misfit at the top and the second trunk of the bottom most tree aren't quite as vigorous...but they're alive!

The misfit at the top seems to want to start multiple leaders rather than make anything resembling branches!

View attachment 373173

It'll be interesting to see where that guy wants to go now!

One of the problems I have with this planting is erosion. I've tried using an inorganic mix early on, but it washed out of the "pot" too easily. I switched back to a fully organic mix: MiracleGrow potting mix. Ugh! The heresy!! Don't tell anyone lest I get banned from the site I added a couple of petrified wood pieces embedded into the soil to serve as erosion breaks. They help quite a bit, but I still lose a tiny bit of soil every watering to the point where the top tree ends up in very shallow soil after a few weeks. When I'm not in a hurry, I lay the planting horizontal and water very gently. Still, over time, the soil compacts and erodes away with the end result of getting shallower and shallower

Today, I went moss hunting. I found a couple of different types of moss that were growing in brighter to full sun areas to harvest.

I refilled what soil had eroded away. It was very nice to see lots of fresh white root tips under the rocks when I removed them I topped up the soil, watered well, then planted some moss! I used a very short dense moss in the open areas at the top and a shaggier moss under the trees at the bottom...with some blending from one type to another in an attempt to look a little more "natural". We'll see how that goes. I'm hoping it will help prevent soil erosion better than the rocks did. I know it will help with evaporation. Hopefully it doesn't cause a bigger problem with water running off rather than sinking in, though.

I'm still thinking I'm not going to do any sort of "styling" like I had planned for this year...especially on the misfit at the top! But, it's looking more and more like I'm going to need to get the pruning shears out before too long!

I don't know why, but all I can see is a giant ship with the trees being the sails. I think it's the shape of planter it is in. Not sure if that was intentional, but either way it's really cool.

 

[LittleDingus]

I like the planter a lot, but think it would look better sitting flat. To me pointing up like that, I think of a rocket ship taking off. Just my $.02, feel free to school me on my lack of vision.

My wife calls it my "rocket ship" I think it looks more like a sailing ship. Neither were intentional! The original plan was for more of a mountain slope vibe.

It's a hallowed out bald cypress knee. I have a few others I'm intending to make planters out of as well. I don't care much for the looks of this one laying flat. I have another one that is a bit shallower with a more oval cross section that looks better laying flat. I haven't hollowed it out yet, though.

I was actually thinking to steepen the angle a little more. My original half-baked plan was to play up the misfit at the top as the straggler that managed to eek out some form of tortured existence exposed to the harsh elements just above the tree line while the forest thrived in the "comfort zone" below. The "forest" grew too tall though! Or the knee is too short.

Either way, the implementation suffers from improper scale and perspective in this "pot". I was going to continue that path for another year or two anyway...it amuses my wife

For the future, I've been thinking about trying to learn to make pots from concrete for a different project. If that works out, I'd like to rebuild this composition on a more "mountainous looking" concreate slab...probably with a denser forest. I'm not entirely sure how long the cypress knee will hold up anyway. This will be year 3. The inside is rubber coated to prevent rot, but the outside only gets a light sanding and some linseed oil once a year when I repot the trees. I keep it inside out of the UV to help keep the colors more vibrant.

 

[Carol 83]

It's a hallowed out bald cypress knee.

That's very cool.

 

[LittleDingus]

I'm not going to talk about it much here because there's a thread on it over here

Albinism in Dawn Redwoods??

I know coast redwoods are known to show albinism traits. When my wife and I visited the redwood forests in California, I specifically went looking for a couple to see them in person. It is the oddest thing to see a 20' tree with pure white leaves! The trees would certainly die except that...

www.bonsainut.com

but one of the dawn redwoods in my spaceship developed a spring of albinism!

I'm doing what I can to try and keep the branch through the winter. If I can, I might get more in the future The form of albinism it has is unstable though. There are signs the branch it started on has converted entirely to albino and will like stall out now. Unless I can convince the tree to keep the branch, it will all be gone next year

...stay tuned...

 

[LittleDingus]

Today I spent an hour or so on this forest-of-one



This is currently my favorite coast redwood I'd guess for most "bonsai" enthusiasts, that just confirms what many already think about me: I have no taste in bonsai

It is somewhat styled off a real tree:



I wasn't planning to grow a candelabra, but the initial leader got stunted on this one...something that happens fairly regularly to my redwoods under blurple LEDs! Then the tree just started throwing out new leaders like mad! I think I had 11 at one time! So this became a tree of opportunity...a chance to try something a little different

Here's a better picture of the base:



Yes...an even number of trunks: 6 I'm not sure what, if anything, I will do about that. The flash and closeup flatten out the perspective. It looks much better (to me anyway) in person!

And I love the burl that is forming! If need be, growing more trunks shouldn't be an issue. I rubbed innumerable buds off last fall. I'm sure they will be back once the temps finally warm up a bit. I trimmed off about half the foliage today which opened it up too...a little more sun hitting that burl might turn up bud formation too.

Today was about cutting back branches to encourage budding closer to the trunk. I kept a couple extending buds on most existing branches but cut the length back to look a little more in scale. I cut a couple of crossing branches completely off. And did a little more trimming to raise the bottom off the ground so it's easier to see the base.

My plan is to pot it either early fall or late winter. I'm happy with the trunk sizes for the most part. The thicker branches are almost unbendable now. I don't want them getting so thick they start loosing space in between. Right now, the trunk proportions make me happy

Finding an appropriate pot has been a challenge! The pot I initially picked up for this tree is about the right size, but a little too formal for my taste. Today I received a less formal rounded triangle that I really like the shape of, but it may be too shallow and maybe a little too small. We'll see.

Here is an alternate front that has a nice symmetry and has more of a "formal" candelabra feel to it...



...oh, and for those of you keeping score at home: this tree is entering its 3rd growing season...

 

[LittleDingus]

I spent some time on some of my redwoods today. In general, none of my redwoods have grown as well as I would have liked this season so far They aren't in danger...but they aren't as vigorous as they usually are by this point in the season.

My sequoia, in particular, had a lot of die back this year. All of them Today I only worked on my "champion" however.

One side looks OK but the other looks horrid



After trimming off much of the dead growth, the tree is looking pretty thin.



But, turn it 90 degrees and it's still pretty wide.



The tree is putting on some healthy new growth.



We just need to string together some sunny days that aren't 100F+ and maybe it will start to fill back in!