Wow,

The Easter freeze must have really done a number on my young tree. This 4 foot tall, one gallon potted size, mail order tree looked quite promising and beautiful all of last year when I think I first planted it.

Late, last Fall it went dormant, and overwintered with no problem. This year, by late march it had releafed, and the early tiny leaves had grown to almost full size prior to our Easter week of light freezes with a few hours over a couple nights of hard freeze. I covered the tree and the leaves did not wilt or go to mush. Instead in the following weeks the tree appeared to look like it was going dormant.

After that, all except the canopy's bottom short branch leaves changed to a golden color and slowly dropped.

The poor tree has since releafed, but most of those new leaves are taking a very long time to grow to a normal size.

What should I be doing for this tree. A week ago, I applied some black cow compost on top of the soil around the tree; about a foot away from the tree's trunk. The new leaves on that lowest branch I mentioned above seemed to like the benefits from my adding the compost, but the other leaves on the tree have shown very little if any change.

The root flare is visible and seems not to be buried too deeply. We have had a very wet spring, and the soil after a hard rainstorm collects some standing water, but not long enough for mosquitos to multiply.

I first planted this tree in a slightly raised bed of sand and Black Cow compost. Last year during the drought I had to water the tree almost every day to keep the small rootball moist enough. This year the rains have come often enough that there has only been one week when I had to water the tree.

Does it sound like the tree is getting too much water from the rains? Or is it more likely that the tree is not getting enough nutrients in that shallow bed where it is planted, and that its roots have not been able to access needed nutrients in the virgin soil, since the virgin soil have ranged from wet to moist for several week now?

I have seen reports that redwoods like the water, and even do well being planted in the banks of streams. The rains have kept our soil so moist that I am afraid to mulch the tree. Does the Ogon 'Gold Rush' cultivar need a drier bed, and could that be what is making my tree's recover so slow? Otherwise; could it be that the tree was more seriously damaged by the Easter freezes than I perceived, and is going to need much longer of a time to recover?

I am worried now, because we are only about 4 or so weeks away from the 4th of July, which has traditionally been sweltering hot. On that holiday, temps have traditionally ranged from the high 90s and even into the 100 degree range. What can I do to help this struggling tree prepare, incase such upcoming heat stress occurs again this year?