Redwood dieback

My first time trying to grow a redwood. Nursery said sempervirens but, by the look of it, I think it’s a giganteum. I’ve been keeping of the ground a little wetter than Just moist because I understand that’s what giganteum likes And, whenever I’ve checked, the ground is not soggy even to a depth of 8 to 10 inches. By the pictures you can see the fronds are dying back from the growth tips. And most of the damage has been to the one side. It’s starting to form buds, as you can see, but not in the middle section nor on the most affected side. Any of you experienced with this type of tree and/or this particular problem? Thanks for any light you might be ableto shine on this problem.
Ken

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Doesn’t look good.
Put it on the ground in a sheltered spot and only water when it needs it. It may bounce back in the spring, but the dieback from the tips is very troubling.

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Thank you for the response Andy.

I agree with Andy, the dieback doesn’t look good. Where do you live and when did you see these changes start happening to the tree?

I have about 4 sequoia sempervirens grown from seed and about 12 sequoiadendron giganteum grown from seed.

I have seen such die back under certain conditions and successfully brought most of them back from the edge to be healthy vibrant trees.

The three questions I asked myself to solve the die back problem were this:

  • How do the roots like to grow in nature?
  • What type of soil do they tend to favor in nature?
  • How much water do they like when grown in nature?

Sequoia s. and Sequoiadendron g. like to have wide spreading roots. Often in nature the roots will entangle with other trees of the same species and exchange nutrients.

Their favored soil tends to be fairly sandy, low organic material, and well draining.

Water hogs. But in an interesting sense in that they in natural habitats get about 15% of their water through their needles.

What I did to solve my problems were to repot the troubled trees in a wider and shallower container. I built some grow boxes from inexpensive wood and water proofed them using shou sugi ban. The soil mixture I used is composed of diatomaceous earth, pumice, and peat mixed at about 3:3:1.

Every other evening after direct sun was off of the trees I would mist the entire tree if it hadn’t rained and kept the tree well watered. Which is much safer to do with a very rocky growing medium.

Over the winter I used liquid 0-10-10 fertilizer once monthly to encourage root growth.

The common problem I found with all the trees is they all seemed a little bit root bound. That may or may not have been the actual problem but it was the one commonality between all the trees.

7 out of 9 trees with this problem survived and are doing very well. This is a good rate but no guarantee.

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Thanks giys for your input. In a recent reading of an article about Redwood I read something that I already knew but somehow I had forgotten. Redwoods not only need moisture for their roots but they transpire a lot of water through their leaves, therefore I need for humidity or mist. I live in the Sacramento Valley and this part, near the bay area, receives a lot of wind. I believe that and the high heat of the summer dehydrated the fronds. I have since transferred the poor thing to my greenhouse where I have a mister set up. I have sung to it, apologize to it and prayed over it. There’s not much left but I’m hopeful. I will repost if it survives. I think I will also remove any remaining fertilizer pellets and try the 0-10-10. Thanks again.

Curious, did this tree end up making it?