Some of the Trees in Fall. 11.7.2020

This is the Dawn Redwood now.  The leaves take on a cinnamon color - not the brilliant red of some maples or yellow of ginkgos.  This tree grew a few feet this year.  It's about doubled in height and volume since I planted it 3 or 4 years ago..

The four chestnut trees.  They grew quickly, about 3 or 4 feet a year.  There should be a good chestnut crop in the next few years.  This year there were a couple of dozen.

A volunteer Japanese maple.  This was a volunteer that I dug up and replanted, twice.  It was worth it.  The fall colors are brilliant.

 

Dawn Redwood at Three Years Old. 10.30.2020

 I planted this Dawn Redwood in November, 2016.  I was going through some anticipatory grieving about my aging dog, and wanted it as a reminder of him when he was gone.  He is buried among its roots, as is his companion dog and at least one chicken.  I like to think that the tree contains some of Charlie's atoms.

Here was the tree as planted  11.16.16.  I removed the potting soil and burlap / clay mix, and washed off the roots.  I pruned off crossing and potentially girdling roots.  With so little root mass remaining, I wondered if it would survive.

The tree did survive, and thrived.   Here it is almost exactly four years later.  I keep some fencing around it to prevent deer damage to the trunk.  That might no longer be necessary but doesn't hurt anything either. It got no additional water at all this year, surviving as a natural member of the ecosystem.

Dawn Redwood is a tree that existed at the time of the dinosaurs.  It is different from native redwoods, in that it drops its needles each winter.  They were thought to be extinct, with only a record in fossils and coal from millions of years ago, until discovered in a forest in China in the 1940s.  Before dropping, the needles change color to a brownish yellow, which they are starting to do now.

Dawn Redwood after Two Growing Seasons. 10.29.18

Dawn Redwood after 2 Growing Seasons.  10.29.18

I planted this tree on 11.17.16.  Based on recommendations by Linda Chalker-Scott, of Washington State Horticulture (I think), I washed off the nursery soil, bare-rooting the tree.  I cut off crossing or binding roots before planting.  During the first year, I watered it about once weekly.  This year, I watered about every other week.  It was a hot, dry summer.  The tree has grown nicely, and now it is starting to show fall color change.  I keep the fence around it to reduce deer damage to the trunks, which happened to nearby cypress trees of similar size.

The tree is mulched, but I did not fertilize.  I've buried some dead chickens nearby, and my beloved dog Charlie, whose atoms will nourish my spirit in the leaves and growth of this tree.

Tree at planting: 11.17.16.  It's hard to believe that a tree with so roots, compared to the top, survived.  But it did, and flourished.  I did not prune the top.  Planting in fall may have allowed significant root growth before Spring.   Im certain that mulch and keeping it watered for the first year is also key.

New Load of Arborist Chips. Mulching Young Trees and Borders for Next Year. 10.14.17

 We had a large, old, dead tree cut down.  The arborist had a truck load of chipped tree branches, including those from our tree, so I asked for them to use as mulch.

It will take several truck loads to haul all of them.  So far, I've mulched a major section of the woods edge border, which I spent the last 18 months cleaning up and planting with trees, shrubs, and perennials.  It was fairly clean already, but with about 4 inch thickness of arborist chips, should not need any significant maintenance for most of 2018.

Chestnut Tree, One Year Old.  Double-Fenced, Mulched, and Ready for Winter.  10.12.17

That's a major step in reducing my workload next year.  Many of the things that I planted there, were unwanted plants and shrubs that needed a new home.  Some were sizeable.  I didn't want to buy things that might not do well, or more likely, be eaten by deer.  Deer are the major limitation to what I can grow.  At this point, I just want to get trees growing above deer browsing height, and stick to the ornamentals that they don't like to eat. I know they won't eat the dwarf mugo pines, crocosmia, gladiolas, ferns, Helleborus, daffodils, or hyacinthoides.  Not sure about the Rhododendrons.  I'm watching for deer damage to the Dawn Redwood, but so far they have not taken a liking to it.

I also mulched the year old Chestnut trees.  They still need some hardware cloth to protect from rodents, then they too are set for the winter and for 2018 as well.

Dawn Redwood, One Year Later. 10.1.17

Dawn Redwood Tree at One Year.  10.1.17

Dawn Redwood Leaves.  10.1.17

 Last year we planted a Dawn Redwood (Metasequois glyptostroboides) tree.  I followed the recommendation of Washington State Horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott, and washed the soil from the roots, pruned crossed or damaged roots, before planting.  It had so little remaining root, I wondered if it would live.

It did nicely, leafed out nicely, and grew about a foot taller.   I didn't expect much. The adage is First year sleep, Second year creep, Third year leap.  I think the second year grown is at least "creep"  so maybe next year it will leap.  These trees have the potential to grow 5 feet per year.

Dawn Redwood when planted 11.17.16

Dawn Redwood Leaves Unfurling. 4.17.17

Dawn Redwood Leaves Unfurling.  4.17.17

Dawn Redwood.  4.17.17

This is the Dawn Redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides that I planted last October.  At the time, the tree was newly shipped to the local nursery.  I washed all of the soil from the roots, which were minimal, and cut off potentially girding roots, which were few.  Still, I wonder if it will put out a few leaves then die due to so few roots.  So far it looks very nice.

Planting a Dawn Redwood, Metasequia glyptostroboides. 11.17.16

Dawn Redwood with ball/burlap/clay removed.  11.17.16

Close up of Root Ball.  My finger touches a girdling root that will be removed.

 Today we planted a Dawn Redwood Metasequia glyptostroboides tree.  Dawn redwoods are deciduous conifers, related to Bald Cyprus and redwood trees.  They were known in the fossil record long before living trees were found in Southeast China.

I wanted to plant a tree for a memorial for my aging dogs.  Planting a tree gives me peace of mind and a focus for my thoughts.

To the best of my ability, I followed the bare-rooting method described by Linda Chalker-Scott of WSU.  I had done that before with a Gravenstein apple tree in full leaf, so far so good.  It looks radical, but the logic is sound.  This tree was in last week's shipment at Portland Nursery, balled and burlaped and placed in container with compost yesterday.  Because it was so recently dug, there has been no chance for roots to fill throughout the container.  It looks scary, seeing so few roots, but this feels like a good chance to catch it before roots grow in bad directions, setting the tree up for future girdling and early failure to thrive, or death.

As Chalker-Scott notes, fall planting is an excellent time to plant trees.  They have the remainder of the fall rainy season, plus late winter and early spring,  to add feeder roots, before starting to produce leaves next year.

When I removed the ropes and burlap, most of the clay just fell off.  I hosed off the rest.  This is the tree inside that pot, that you can't see unless you remove the burlap and wash of the roots.  It looks so drastic.  I've planted lots of fruit trees that were as drastic looking, and they did great.  So I think this is OK.

The girdling root is removed.

Holding another deformed root that crosses through others.  I removed that one too.

 Three photos illustrate the root pruning that I did.  Even though it seems this tree already has almost no roots, I removed the ones that looked like they might lead to future troubles, such as girdling.  One appeared to have auto-grafted onto another.  I removed the smaller of the two.

In the end, my root removal was very minimal.

I also followed other recommendations by Chalker-Scott.  Her two books, "The Informed Gardner" series, are the best that I have read.  In this case, I planted the tree much more shallowly than the burlap would have indicated.  It was too deep.  All  of the roots are fully buried, but the root flare is still at the soil level.

Second, I did not amend the soil with anything extraneous.  The tree has nothing between it and the native soil.  The roots are in full contact with the soil that will nourish and support the tree.  As I discussed with the Gravenstein tree, I also did not want to attract moles and voles to this tree, which I suspect to be an issue if I include compost additives in the soil.

This is the area that I cleared of blackberry brambles and some fallen Douglas Hawthorn trees, over the past couple of weeks.  The soil has been nourished by fallen blackberry leaves, rotting brambles, and tree leaves, for unknown number of years.  But even if that was not the case, I would not be adding compost or other amendments to the soil.

I did tie support to the tree, very loosely.  The intent is not to prevent swaying, but to keep it from falling over if there is excessive weather.  The main thing holding the tree in place, is the soil and root interaction.

The tree is planted about 6" shallower than the burlap was.

There were daffodils on sale at Home Depot.  I planted a wide circle outside of the planting hole area.  Those are for my benefit, but I like to think the bulbs deter underground rodents. There is no proof, that I know of, that daffodils do that.

Ning with the tree.  He's about 5'10".  Temporary deer fencing.

 Finally, I provided hardware cloth vole protection, and fencing deer protection.

This week I will also add some wood chip mulch, and check the support.  The rope is very loose, by intent.  This makes me a bit nervous, with such a tall tree - about 8 foot.  However, the trunk is thin and the top is not very heavy.  I've had posts that were heavier and not any deeper, and they stayed in place just fine.

As an after thought, I looked at those pruned roots and wondered if Metasequoia can produce shoots from roots.  I can't find any such info on the internet, but there are trees that grow from root cuttings.  So I planted those in my ginkgo seed raised bed.  If they grow, fine.  If they don't, nothing lost.

I think this will be a beautiful and healthy tree. 

Prunings saved for root cuttings experiment.