Hi Klavier, Sorry it took me awhile to get back to you. I live in Hinsdale near Rt. 16. (10 minutes from Olean) You probably know where that is-just hop on the I86. If I learn of any Am. Chestnut cuttings, I'll try and get my hands on some and get some to you. I went looking for the supposed mature American Chestnuts at Pfeiffer Nature Preserve last fall, but to no avail. I'll keep looking into it. I've been experimenting with my sequoias, but overall they're doing very well, thanks for asking. I started by planting four of them up on the hill in the forest in part-shade. They didn't like that very much! They put on good first year growth, but are now stunted and not doing well at all. I planted two nice size sequoia's in a lower area in full-sun and they're doing very well! One is three years old and the other four. The full-sun has really made the difference. One had almost total brown-out after it's first winter and looked dead, to be honest. But it came back and actually put on a good amount of growth this past summer. I thought is was near impossible to propagate sequoia's from cuttings-how are you doing it?! I'd really like to try it. There are quite a few Am. Chestnuts in the area. 6 or 7 right on my road on a slope facing north. They're your typical blight-infected chestnuts; saplings growing for old root systems. I took some of the leaves to press, etc. Nice talking with you. Bill Hughey

Sorry to hear about your seedling. If it's suffering from "damping off" (a soil/seed borne disease or fungus) there's really nothing you can do to the individual seedling already affected. Planting it deeper probably only held the stem up for a brief period. Starting out with clean pots and fresh soil and keeping the soil at the proper moisture level can help to lessen the likelihood of future problems with the disease.

Two things to update on the post that nobody seems interested in... 1. There is a relatively new product called "serenade" that is offered as a non-toxic alternative to damping off diseases and a litany of other fungal villains. Most fungicides, of course, are HIGHLY toxic, where as this one is simply a fungicidal bacteria, a strain of the bacteria Bacillus Subtilis", it smells terrible, but so far has worked relatively well for me since I began using it a week or so ago. I have not lost any of cryptomeria or metasequoia seedlings to damping off since I began using this, however, it is too early to tell whether this is significantly caused by the bacterium. As for fungicides for damping off, it seems that most damping off diseases are caused by the bastards in the infamous "water mold" (so called because their zoospores possess a flagella, like a sperm, and can only move in wet environments.) family, mentioned above. Namely pythium and phytophthora, mostly damping off seems to be pythium, though. I've heard botrytis species referred to as potential damping-off culprits, as well. Whatever species causes damping off, the fungus literally eats the plant (secretes enzymes that digest the plant tissue) at the soil line, causing the seedling to keel over but for the parts of the plant above the infected spot to still appear healthy for a short time until they die of starvation/desication, etc. Barbara, here's some pictures again of the mycorrhizae that somehow inoculated that cupressus macrocarpa that I had to dig up because it got too big...

hi how did it get to you .. mailed?? .. where did it come from ... have you been leaving it in the sun .... was it grown in the sun.. or in a greenhouse???? did you transplant it ... trees dont need all that much water .... depending on the potting media .... i suspect stress from shipping.. or simply moving it .... and probably too much water.. and maybe sunburn.. regardless.. the growth points look fine... try not to kill it with too much love .... ken