Coast Redwood Leaves Close-up

As these trees get older, the leaves at the top of the trees become needles, which helps conserve moisture in the dry heat of the canopy. The lower branches will keep flat leaves such as these.

Seed #7 - Growing Like Crazy

I'm not exactly sure which of my redwoods this is - it doesn't matter. They're all growing huge. In the past five months, these seedlings have grown almost a foot tall with eight-inch branches.

The overhead shot shows how the growth is fairly uniform around the trunk.

Seed #8 - Branches

I started having some browning on my coast redwoods' leaves this weekend, most likely due to the soil not being moist enough. I'm going to make sure not to neglect these - they're already showing to be fragile.

Here you can see what's the start of at least two new branches.

Coast Redwoods at Kew Gardens

A few weeks ago, while in the UK, I made sure to stop by at Kew Gardens to see their redwoods. These coast redwoods blew my mind, from the photos, it shouldn't be hard to understand why. Take a look at the ground cover in the one photo, and the spiral bark pattern in the other.

Seed #19 - Spiral Leaf Pattern

I found this leaf pattern on a few of my coast redwoods. Very interesting, and nice desktop wallpaper.

Cold Stratification

There's been little activity with my coffee filter baggie seeds in the past couple of weeks, so I'm trying cold stratification. Germination rate in coast redwoods will increase when their dormancy period is overcome by extended periods of near-freezing temperatures. I've moved the seeds into baggies of moist seed-starting soil (mostly peat moss) in my refrigerator. In two months, I'll remove them from the cold, and keep the baggies out in the open where they may receive indirect sunlight. When the seedlings start germinating, I'll move them into their own cel-packs.

I wrote a more detailed post on cold stratification and the soil baggie method in my giant sequoias blog, if you're interested.

Seed #4 - Three Cotyledons

Most of my coast redwood sprouts have two giant cotyledons. This one sports three.

Seed #16 - Sprout

Seed #10 - Sprout

Another healthy sprout.

Seed #7 - Sprout

Seed #7 is starting to show its cotyledons (seed leaves).

Seed #3 - Sprout

I'm so used to my giant seqouoias' three to four cotyledons that I'm still surprised when I see only two emerging from my coast redwood seedlings. While the giant sequoia seedling generally has between three to five cotyledons, two is normal for the coast redwood.

Seed #7 - Sprout

Not much to tell here - just a healthy coast redwood sprout making its way through though the soil

Seed #1 - Sprout

It's always nice to see a seedling sprout without its seedcoat.

Seed #19 - Radicle

Seed #18 - Radicle

Seed #17 - Radicle

Seed #16 - Radicle

Seed #15 - Radicle

Seed #14 - Radicle

Seed #13 - Radicle

Seed #12 - Radicle

Seed #11 - Radicle

Seed #10 - Radicle

Seed #9 - Radicle

Seed #8 - Radicle

Seed #7 - Radicle

I really didn't expect so many coast redwood germinations so quickly. This is one of ten I found this morning.

This is not a Coast Redwood Sprout

Okay, I thought this was my first sprout, but it turns out to just be a blade of grass that grew from a seed that found its way into my seed-starting soil.

However, I'm not letting these photos go to waste :)

Seed #6 - Radicle

Seed #5 - Radicle

Seed #4 - Radicle

Pretty aggressive little radicle, eh?

Seed #3 - Radicle

Seed #2 - Radicle

My one mistake today was in leaving these newly-germinated seeds out of water for thirty minutes before planting them in their cel-packs. I think they'll be okay, but when I did get around to planting them, even though I had sprayed them with spring water, the radicles had shriveled up a little bit. I'm going to have to be careful in the future.

Seed #1 - Radicle

Today was a really good day to be a coast redwood fan. After only five days in wet coffee filters (baggie method), I found six seeds have sprouted already. This really surprised me, considering all I had read said that coast redwood have very low germination rates.

Getting Started...

This is my first attempt at growing coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) from seeds. The seeds are harder and darker in color than those of giant sequoias. The deep color is most likely due to a high concentration of tannin.

To begin, I'm soaking one-hundred seeds in aerated spring water overnight. In the morning, I will set the seeds up with the baggie method to pre-germinate them before putting them in the cel-pack greenhouse. For the baggie method, I fold the seeds into wet, unbleached coffee filters, and keep them in the dark in ziplock bags until the seeds' radicles (embryonic roots) start emerging. At that point, the seeds can be transplanted into seed-starting soil in my cel-pack mini-greenhouse.

I'm not expecting a high germination rate from these seeds. In fact, I'll be thrilled if I can get ten good seedlings from this batch. Seeing that it may take up to ninety days for some of these to germinate, it's important not to keep them in the greenhouse long enough that they develop mold. This is why the baggie method is so helpful. If I can protect the seeds until they germinate, and only keep them in the greenhouse until they sprout, then my chances of mold are much lower.

Coast redwood seedlings develop quickly - it's possible that they may reach eighteen inches tall in their first year. These are the tallest trees in the world, reaching over 350 feet tall! As long as they're watered often, and given enough time, there's no reason these trees couldn't reach that height in my back yard... aside from my neighbors...