!

David, that is some growth!

!

Wow. Mine is not quite that tall but still has impressed me. Go zone 7.

They do seem tough. Mine survived a deer attack, almost getting blown out of the ground and last year's drought.

Thanks for the pics and glad you liked my joke.

your level bubble adds a new dimension to the whole 'scale' thing.. lol ...

it does not grow that fast in ground freeze areas .. and that probably went w/o saying.. for most of us.. but you never know about these lurkers ... lol ...

e.g. .... i swear .. based on color ... my green giants are active.. from the moment the ground thaws.. until it refreezes ... but that still leaves 4 months of down time.. in MI ...

ken

You guys make me so jealous! My two species DR grew 4-5" (INCHES) last year with frequent watering and have only pushed out 6-7" (INCHES) this year with abundant rain until the last week or so.

My soil is pretty nutrient deficient. Is there something they must have to thrive?

They were both pretty much barerooted from their potting soil with the roots unwound and spread out at planting. I recall one root on my 3 footer that was longer than the tree was tall. Both were mulched and watered the first year as already stated.

I think they hate me =\

John

" Go zone 7."
For the past 8 years it has actually averaged to zn 8 here (just barely) - and the past 2 winters were incredibly mild, lows were only around 15F. Certainly no real soil freezing. I'm about 1 mile from the Chesapeake Bay.

"My soil is pretty nutrient deficient. Is there something they must have to thrive?"
Well, yes that area of my yard has excellent soil, there's at least 4-6" of a brown, woodsy top soil. When I get here it was covered in a gigantic 3' diameter maple, I cut it down about 5 years ago I suspect the decaying roots have released a lot of nutrients.

Also worth noting it gets late afternoon shade from that maple you can see, about 40' to the WSW of it. That probably helped protect it from burning in the early years. I cut its roots so it wouldn't interfere with the new planting of the 'Ogon' and rhododendrons.

i have sand.. they dont need anything ... in regard to the soil.. nutrient-wise .... IMHO ... and that goes for the green one.. and the yellow one.. lol .. though the green one might be faster ...

so why is sand ok.. speculating.. i have high drainage .. for sure???????

its not a fert issue ... IMHO ...

though it could be a balance issue .... i am not learned enough to discuss that ...

one thing for sure.. a problem i have had here in MI ..... is they bud out early.. and they get frost/froze.. often ... one year.. such.. then releaf.. then such again... that was a slow grow year..

ken

Sometimes a few miles makes a difference. The old metas at Dawes seem shirt and thick compared to north east at Seacrest (sp) where they had just survived that tornado barely they year before my visit. But turn south to Rowe by Cincy and more tall trees. Go figure.

FWIW, my main species tree was growing fast until last year's drought almost killed it. This year it is green and I am thrilled. It just has not grown much. The Ogon suffered less. My theory is because as a smaller tree it got all the water it needed from a few hours of the sprinkler. Not until after the big meta dropped its foliage suddenly did I just go out and 12 hour sprinkler the area every couple days.

I have fertilized neither....there is a rotting ash tree stump and root system near the Ogon.....An older silver maple was just uphill the big meta but it was old and thinning when I removed it. Also not THAT close.

30 miles north of me I had black soil for 3' and then you would see loamy clay (that was still better than what I have now). That loamy clay had black 'swirls' in it.

Here I have mostly loamy clay w/o black. I have varying levels of clay, too. I planted in 2008 or 2009 in pure clay, 10 plugs that had a 1' tall DR above the roots. I'd call it muck rather than clay. Those trees are 8 feet tall now I'd guess.

Back where I used to live my DR is 45-50' tall since being planted in 2001.

A conclusion:
I'm sure milder areas get great growth on DR's but I would venture to say that these trees really love the heat the mid to upper Midwest provides & equally or especially, super-rich, dark, soil.

Dax

Dax,

That's interesting. We tried DR at mom's house in Houston and it didn't make it. Taxodium trees thrived at the same time. One grew 7-8 feet in one year! The "black" soil you mentioned, the only place I ever saw was in Dallas area. Pure black and very crumbly that you can't build a house because the foundation would just fall apart. I remember that DR would be recommended for Dallas area quite a bit. At the old house, they got rid of 2-3 feet of black topsoil and I got stuck with white limestone rocky soil!

Interesting, Lou. I have species bald cypress planted at the same time as the the DR's outgrowing them here. I also have 3 bald cypress cultivars gifted to me from a friend on this forum that seem to pretty happy so far, too.

John

PS- I forgot to mention previously my soil is sandy loam. The DR are placed in a low area that stays wet longer than the bald cyrpress but that one is also in a lower area than most of the yard.

John, is that Quercus ellipsoidalis 'December Red' still kicking? Mine made it. I wondered from time to time if your zone could be too warm for it.

Lou, that's the stuff. It's as easy to work with as pure sand and easier to plant in than that of sand (from the pictures I've seen of Ken planting).

Dax

Dax, it is doing great so far! Not much for shoot elongation (to be expected) but the leaves are full size and very dark green with a beautiful shape to them. I planted about half a dozen other oak species last fall near the same time as your gifted beauty and they have followed a similar pattern. My nuttall oaks have me spoiled as all 3 did 2.5-3.5' the first growing season and every season thereafter haha

The last two days were triple digits here for the first time this year but we are going back to highs in the 80's ( !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) next week. The local met's can't remember the last time we had a week of July highs in the 80's but not a single person around is complaining =)

My DR's do need some TLC with the bermuda that has creeped in to go along with the fact much of the mulch was washed away in flooding events this spring. I intend to take care of that this weekend. Hopefully it helps them out a little.

John

I planted all the DR that Lou mentioned. One I planted grew very well the first year (over 5 feet) but the past two years has looked pitiful. No idea why. Decent soil. Plenty of water.

I planted another DR at a elementary school near me and it is doing ok. Growth rate has been 1-2 feet a year but it isn't irrigated and the soil probably isn't anything special.

I planted an Ogon in my backyard and it is doing ok. I planted it as a small graft two years ago.
{{gwi:497577}}

I forgot to mention, I have also planted dozens of montezuma cypress trees that as a whole have grown really well. Good choice if you want a fast growing tree that will last a long time.

Huh. So I am seeing Metasequoia grows but not amazingly fast in Texas. I always figured it best for zones 5 to 7 from what I read. Nice to know it tolerates texas at least.

To me this is like selling a man in StLouis a Southern Magnolia and showing him a pic of one growing in Atlanta. They do survive here but the size is somewhat limited.

I don't have a pic but at the old house a species DR about 18 yrs was about 3 stories estimated. Significantly taller than the two story house at least. It was planted in the irrigated lawn in a low area so it will also grow vigorously in La. It was a monster.

They're great trees. Sometimes I think how cool the six acres I have would look if I would have planted all Metasequoia's.

Dax

I just germinated 75 of them, and have more seed to go. Not even totally sure how I'm going to use them all, but know I want a lot of them. The thought thus far has been lining a trail through the property with them.

You have to put at least one near your pond and possibly near your arbor for shade.

Whatever you do, it might be a good idea to put most of them in the back 40.

Dax

The trail starts right next to the pond, and on the north side, so that's perfect. Want to get some taxodiums on that side of the pond, as well, since deer make growing lilies on that side difficult, to say the least.

Arbor is on my former property.

Could it be a soil pH issue?? DR's supposedly prefer acid soil (what tree doesn't), but might be more vigorous in more acidic soils.

It seems to grow pretty well around here despite clay soils, we're slightly acid but not extremely so (pH anywhere from 5.6 to about 6.6 in more urbanized areas).

Very nice tree David! Looks like you're a year ahead of me. Here is mine April 2011 (80cm ~ 2,5ft tall)
{{gwi:687388}}

Mid June 2013 (2,6m ~8ft tall although she suffered a leader loss in August 2011, there's nothing visible now)

She even has a cone this year at 2m above ground. I'm on a chair for this image..

Best regards,
Fotis

7.4 sandy loam here. More sand than anything.

Bald Cypress struggle somewhat and are slow. One of my species plants looks like it might be chlorotic. I have three DRs, one species and two Ogon. All three are growing exceptionally well.

Looks good Fotis, considering how much drier your climate is. Average rainfall here is 45 inches/1.15m, spread in all seasons. We had a very wet May/June period and I'm sure this had already grown about 0.5 m when I took this picture. 10"/25cm in June alone.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 5:30