Tree Seedling #11 - Two Days Without Water

About a month ago, I thought my older sequoias were okay for a couple of days without watering... Apparently I was wrong. One of my three two-year-olds started turning brown. I was hoping that only parts of the tree had died, and that the tree would bounce back - no luck. Within a couple of weeks, the whole tree was gone. I had read that if sequoia roots dried up, the tree would die. Apparently that is the case. My wife's calling this our Charlie Brown Xmas Tree...

Oh well, 'makes for a pretty desktop wallpaper.

Tree Seedling #11 - The Superstar

Here's tree #11, my favorite of seedlings purchased from Welker's.

Road Trip!

I'm going on a two week vacation, so I had to pack up my toddlers for someone to babysit. Believe me, this was a little embarrassing!

Seedlings Showing New Growth

My one and two-year-olds that I bought as seedlings from Welker's Nursery are really doing well in their new pots. They've been fairly inactive this past month, but recently, almost every branch on the seedlings has sprouted about an inch of new growth.

Showing off My Seedlings

With all of the great seed-sprouting going on, I've neglected to show off my beautiful seedlings. Here's a few of the thirteen in 5/4 gallon pots out on my deck right now:

Seed #1 - Standing Up and Out of the Greenhouse

I didn't want to keep my first sprout in the greenhouse longer than necessary to prevent mold build-up from poor ventilation and excessive moisture. So, I cut its cel-pack out and placed it in a glass in a corner of my kitchen where it receives indirect sunlight.

I'll spray water on the seedling every day or so to keep the soil moist. In a week or so, it should begin sprouting its secondary leaves, and shortly after that, it'll be ready to be transplanted out of its cel-pack into a small pot.

Say Hello to My Little Friends!

The mailman made me sweat it out a day longer than I was hoping, but my thirteen seedlings arrived today. To recap, I ordered three seedlings from Welker's 2005 crop, and ten smaller ones from their 2006 crop. Impressive shipping job - they rolled each of the seedlings up in newspaper, and bundled them closely together in a small package. There were no problems with the seedlings after their four day, cross-country journey. The soil in the tubes was still moist, and the leaves hadn't lost any of their color.

Following Welker's instructions, I quickly transplanted the seedlings from their soil tubes into pots and gave them a little water bath to help them get situated. I gotta say, they're way 'cuter' than I expected. The leaves are firm, but not prickly, and the older ones had already grown some flaky bark. I'm going to hold off about a week before using fertilizer, and then follow up every 10-14 days as suggested by the product's label.

In partial shade, sequoias will grow tall quickly, but in full sun, they grow fuller. I can wait for height, but fullness is pretty important to me.

Sequoias are the fastest growing of any conifer, or cone-bearing seed plant. Under ideal conditions, they may see growth of up to six feet by their third year! And, once established, they should grow up to two inches thicker (one-inch growth ring) each year. Here on my deck, they'll receive a good portion of sunlight throughout the day.

Okay, So I'm a big Science Geek

So like all other science geeks, I anxiously awaited Discovery Channel's Planet Earth program in HDTV. In the episode Forests: Towering Trees, Falling Leaves, they showed scientists ascending on rope up the biggest trees in the world on the Pacific Coast. The tallest are the Coast Redwood, the biggest are the Giant Sequoia.

I had a thought that it'd be fun... and, really funny... to plant a Giant Sequoia in my back yard. The thought of a 3 million pound, 30-foot diameter, 300-foot tall tree behind a town home still cracks me up! Of course it'll never get that big, but let me have my fun :)

So I did some reading to see if it was even possible to grow one here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Well, I was surprised to find that one of the East Coast's tallest Giant Sequoias wasn't too far from here, in the Tyler Arboretum. So that weekend, my wife and I went out there, and I took this photo of her standing next to it. Further reading confirmed that luckily, I'm in a Goldilocks zone where it's not too cold in the winters, and not too warm in the summer.

So, that was a couple weeks ago. Since then, I ordered over 100 seeds and 13 seedlings. The original idea was to grow these from seeds; the one and two-year-old seedlings were ordered as an afterthought, just in case the seeds thing didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

I'm a week into this project with my first seed germinating a couple days ago, and my seedlings shipping tomorrow. I'm thought I'd share my fun with anyone else out there that thinks this would be a fun project. I bet most people are like I was a couple weeks ago - not knowing that it's actually possible to grow a Giant Sequoia in your back yard!