Ryan

Now would be a perfectly acceptable time to plant these. Frost, or lack thereof, has relatively little to do with autumn tree-planting. But getting them in the ground sooner rather than later will allow for more rooting-in time before winter.

I am impressed that you are growing from seed.

+oM

Thanks Tom. I have too many I have grown from seed. It was difficult choosing Dawn Redwood over Giant Sequoia, but one of them had to win. I think its the right choice.

Congratulation on planting a tree grown from seed. It's like having your own baby. I just planted a couple of shantung maple grown from seeds last year, one is over 7 feet tall and one is 16 inches tall (dwarf?). I also have bald cypress grown from seed as well. Deep green color is what I had hoped for. Soon to be planted when I get my energy back after digging 2 big holes in very compacted ground... My brother has a lot of dawn redwood grown from seeds and he doesn't know what to do with them. He's hoping that local schools would let him plant them on their ground. That's what I'm going to do at local HS with mine. I have way too many seedlings...

It's the same way for me. I had interest in guerilla gardening them, but decided that obviously wouldn't be smart to do. I am scared to plant them out though as it will be technically their first winter (I had them inside for a year when I was learning :)). I don't want to kill the tree, it would be a real loss. I will have to see what to do though. I'm nervous....

I don't amend the soil before I place it in it's hole do I? And does the size you plant it at matter? Can it be 1 foot tall? I have never actually planted a tree in the ground before and would love some advice from anyone willing to give it. Thanks all!

Small trees take to their new locations readily. Don't amend the soil unless you are willing and able to do so over a very large area, ie. the eventual rooting zone of the tree! If the tree is going into a lawn area, you could topdress the entire area with well-aged compost, but that's getting pretty fancy.

Be sure to mulch it with woodchips/bark/etc. taking care to not heap the mulch up on the trunk. Water it in well and get the h*ll out of the way. That thing is gonna grow;^)

+oM

Well I sure hope it does Tom. I will not ammend the soil. I will mulch it as well. I am excited to do all of this.

I have decided to plant a Giant Sequoia in my yard as well. Not in the same area, but in my yard. I hope I don't lose this guy though, as I will be planting him instead of one I received from an online nursery. I chose the one I grew from seed so that in years time, I can come back and look at the tree I grew from seed and see how it has grown.

I want to see pictures!

Think I'm a year behind you in growing some Metasequoias from seed so I'm not more experienced. Mine are only a few inches tall. I've split them up between heated roots and natural light and all with only limited differences in survival rates.

One thing I did which killed a dozen of them was take them from my cool basement and put their pots outside with exposure to sun between 0800 and 1200. Burnt them to a crisp and only one recovered. That was August though.

So if yours have been in limited light for awhile maybe work them into the sun over the course of a couple days. My Forest Farm instruction sheet said something similar.

Alright. I took some pictures of the trees I will be planting out. Just for you Toronado.

These are trees figting over who gets planted in the lawn (I haven't made up my mind)There are 3 of them in 3 different pots:

And the Giant Sequoia I am planting into the ground:

All hand raised from seed.

I'm with +oM, very impressive!

Those trees, no problem. Perfect to plant.

Dax

Not sure what kind of soil you have but just loosen soil about 5ft of circle/square for roots to spread out rapidly. an inch of compost and 3 inches of mulch covering that circle will do wonders for little tree. It will literally explode next year with no grass or weeds to compete with. Maybe fish emulsion fertilizer will help speed up growth. Usually soil lacks sufficient nitrogen for optimal growth. If you fertilize your yard with lawn fertilizer then that's enough.

Right now it's just Miracle Gro soil. I have been told NOT to bareroot the Sequoia, but what about the Dawn Redwood?

Oh, and has anyone ever used those fertilizer spikes for trees? I was thinking about them but don't know if they should be used just now or if I should wait. Thanks everyone!

Ryan

They're a waste of money - most expensive way of applying fertiliser known to man.

In most circumstances, conifers don't need any additional fertiliser anyway. They are adapted to growing on low fertility soils.

Resin

Thanks Resin. I'm glad I didn't buy any. I was told by a Sequoia tree expert that all of my trees need to be fertilized throughout the year and I figured those would be an easy way of doing it. I am glad I only bought the Miracle Gro kind.

But is it okay to bareroot them to plant them (Dawn Redwood)?

I'm going out tomorrow to plant these suckers. Hopefully mine will grow as fast as Dax's did. What's your secret man??

Here is where the Giant Sequoia is going (red X if you can see it):

Here are some better pictures of where it will be:

It's a bad area. I know someone will tell me that.

Yep, should be OK to plant them bare root, just make sure the roots don't get a chance to dry out.

"What's your secret man??"

I don't have a secret man, but if I did, he'd be secret! ;-)

"It's a bad area. I know someone will tell me that"

Looks like it could do with some soil decompaction and plenty of mulching.

Resin

Ryan those are great pics. Thanks for going putting them up.

My ONE Arbor Day dawn redwood came bareroot and lived. In general if a tree I'm planting is in a pot and the soil doesn't all fall away from the roots I never do more than try to straighten out any curlers.

Anytime Toronado. And thanks again Resin. I thought you had a secret but maybe not. I would like to know what Dax's secret to growing them so fast is....

I'm going to plant the Dawn Redwood today. I will try to just take it out of the pot and stick it straight into the ground, so we'll see how that goes. I am still kinda nervous, but I'm coming to accept that if one of them dies, I have PLENTY of them to replace it.

I am still a little weary about mulching too. I only mulch on the surface around the tree, and create a basin correct? And I leave the original dirt I used to dig the hoel to pile around the tree, correct?

Here goes nothing....

I planted it today. Took me an hour and a half for just digging the hole by myself. I am not sure how well of a job I did though. I dug all the way down and found good 'ol Virginia clay. Great. I also battled hundreds of good sized rocks.

So once I hit where I wanted to stop, which was about 1.5-2 feet down, I then layed down some compost we have in our backyard. I then took the tree out and placed it in the hole and filled dirt in around it. I then of course mulched it and did the best I could to create a basin. I tried to stay away from the trunk of the tree with the mulch as well.

Picture time:

In this first one, it's just a shot of the tree in it's new home:

Here is what worried me. It's lowest branches are basically touching the mulch. I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing or if it even matters:

And here is a weird part of the tree, I don't know if you can see it or not, but it shows where one of the branches trained itself to grow as the new leader. It is at that little middle section you may be able to see. I found this odd:

And just another picture:

Gee Ryan what a horrible mulching job. I know.

Ryan

Pull the mulch just far enough away it doesn't touch the trunk. My "big" tree has lost its leader a couple times and always grown a new one. When that trunk is 20 inches across you'll never see where that little bend was.

What can go wrong if it does touch the trunk though? I am hoping this spring, or sooner, it will shoot upwards and those bottom branches will straighten out.

Ryan

My secret is I plant the green side up ;-)

With your soil compaction and rocks you should dig very wide holes and mound the soil so it is up off the ground creating a convex mound to plant within. You'll probably be ok but in the future that's what you'll want to do. At the same time Ryan, when you have your hole dug, hammer some slits about eight around the hole so the roots have somewhere to go into the hard clay. Use whatever tool it takes to do this.

Your mulch is fine except just pull it back from the trunk an inch or two, that's all we're saying to do.

See ya,

Dax

"At the same time Ryan, when you have your hole dug, hammer some slits about eight around the hole so the roots have somewhere to go into the hard clay. Use whatever tool it takes to do this."

I do it with a pick. Swing it into the side of the hole down low and pry it a bit to loosen the soil around the hole. After the root ball is in the hole I go around it and shovel in the sides before filling it in to the top. That way I'm not trying to put topsoil in a narrow crack between the root ball and surrounding soil.

Thanks Daw and botann, I will definitely do that. I'll do that tomorrow when I plant the Giant Sequoia. I hope they survive, we'll see.

I meant Dax**

Any other comments anyone?

Hey all. I got around to planting the Giant Sequoia today, and I must say, it looks very good IMO. I did everything I was told to do. I put a good amount of organics in there as well. I don't think it's too bad for the 2nd time ever planting a tree. What does everyone else think?

Ryan

Looks good! Thanks for the progress update!

The circle of satisfaction... Seed to planting.

Soon you'll be tilling rows in your yard and planting seeds during fall (99% of the time) and letting them go through a natural dormancy and growing... on their own.

Dax

Haha well I don't know about that Dax, that seems a little much...but maybe.