FlyTrapCare Forums

I was thinking of growing those famous sequoias, anyone got some tips on how to grow them? I am stratifying the seeds right now.

First, you need a lot of room, they can get wide.
Next, don't live near the airport, you'll have issues in a few years.
It'll help if you don't live in Florida. The high water table will rot the roots, and the next hurricane will turn your little evergreen into a house crushing hazard.
Last, Redwoods and Sequoias are different species. You've mentioned both, so it sounds like you need to figure out which one you have so you can provide it with the necessary conditions.

Fair point, but it takes incredibly long time for them to reach a good size. I was also thinking of growing dawn redwood which I heard you can grow in florida.

Well redwoods and dawn redwoods are fairly different trees. I'm not sure how easy either one is to start from seed though, it's always been my understanding that redwood seeds have very low viability (no clue about dawn redwoods though.)

sans wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:12 pm I was thinking of growing those famous sequoias, anyone got some tips on how to grow them? I am stratifying the seeds right now.

Where'd you get your sequoia seed from? I'm kinda interested in this, especially if they have guarantee with them that I can see them after they get grown. Seriously, it would be cool to find someone in their indigenous area to get fresh seeds from. I could see planting some in a few out-of-the-way places around here. My gardening buddy is on a binge of planting trees in his yard...all local, native trees. His plant is to stop having to mow the grass...and he's actually making pretty good progress to that. He'd jump at a sequoia tree I'm sure...just for the shock factor of the locals in a hundred years. Certainly the seeds are readily available...one of the first links I pulled up states that one mature tree produces 230,000 to 2.3 million cones and each cone produces around 300 seeds.

@nimbulan, I was just reading that the seeds have something like a 20% germination rate.

Seeds were available the last time I was in the Muir Woods gift shop. So if you don't mind a side trip...?

The one I'm curious about is the Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which is the mid-height one (out of three varieties)...it supposedly is a stockier tree (bushy crown and thicker trunker) than the other two. Supposedly there is a Dawn Sequoia growing up close to Auburn, Alabama.

Okay, evenwind, you've sent me down another rabbit trail!!! I've just sent a question via chat to the gift shop...I could drop by their on the way to pick up some beer, I guess.

Intheswamp wrote:@nimbulan, I was just reading that the seeds have something like a 20% germination rate.

It's been a long time but I remember redwood seeds (and I'm talking about the coastal redwood specifically) having something like 0.1% viability. Could be that was never true, or the other species just have better seed viability.

nimbulan wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 5:05 pm

Intheswamp wrote:@nimbulan, I was just reading that the seeds have something like a 20% germination rate.

It's been a long time but I remember redwood seeds (and I'm talking about the coastal redwood specifically) having something like 0.1% viability. Could be that was never true, or the other species just have better seed viability.

I imagine it could easily be lower. I did read a few places where the germination rate is low, but those places didn't say how low. The 20% rate on one website was the only specific rate I saw. Planting something that will still be here in a few a 100 years...sounds interesting. I just wonder about their ability to stand hurricane force winds, though....living 90 miles inland from the gulf coast does *not* protect us from those storms. Tornadoes, too, but nothing much stands against a direct hit from those.

This is what I got honestly, I was thinking of getting a dawn redwood one too.

https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Sequoia-Tr ... r_hp_atf_m