Has anyone experience trying to grow this fossil? Got some seeds and very simple instructions and now looking for a bit more info.
Dawn redwood (Metasequoia)
- Thread starter TLM
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While I have no personal experience, Pershore, the horticultural college that I went to had little trouble growing them. You probably already know that they are under threat on their home turf in China but they are grown everywhere across the world where they won’t suffer drought, sun burn or long winters. Just follow those simple instructions, get a good root ball established before planting in its final site. It enjoys the wet and can live in water but that is only after it is established.
Wish I could help more. It probably is as simple as your instructions.
Good luck.
Wish I could help more. It probably is as simple as your instructions.
Good luck.
Sorry to be the buzzkill, but if I may be allowed to take the role of the other side of your conscience, may I suggest that you avoid growing non-native species?
It is better for the bio-habitat and the support of wildlife to grow native species (wherever you may be) because that is the environment the biosphere has evolved to thrive in.
Sorry, but just a thought, and one worth voicing.
As you were...
It is better for the bio-habitat and the support of wildlife to grow native species (wherever you may be) because that is the environment the biosphere has evolved to thrive in.
Sorry, but just a thought, and one worth voicing.
As you were...
Metasequoia is found in parks, gardens and arboretums all over the UK.
I would agree with @Wander if you intend to grow a plantation but there is nothing wrong with a couple of specimens down by your spring.
If it were an invasive, or even a vigorous species I think there would be more of them about. Indeed I can’t recall seeing natural regen in this species.
I would agree with @Wander if you intend to grow a plantation but there is nothing wrong with a couple of specimens down by your spring.
If it were an invasive, or even a vigorous species I think there would be more of them about. Indeed I can’t recall seeing natural regen in this species.
Arguably, that doesn't make it right. The fashion for decorative and exotic trees is a 19th century one where they neither knew (nor cared) so much about biodiversity.
Again, maybe.
But I would be a lot happier if one grew (for example) something like willow or alder to soak up that excess moisture down by the spring.
On an individual scale, then you are right - what's the problem with one tree? Well, it means a lot to the immediate habitat that will suffer and has not evolved to live in the presence of that tree. That non-native tree may not support the insects (and therefore birds) that live along that spring, whereas a native tree would encourage and support them. Just one tree, though, eh? Invasive or not, it still has an impact on that immediate environment.
But on a national scale, one tree here, one tree there...soon adds up to a plantation.
Again, just saying. Just being devil's advocate.
……. And I am hardly an Angel!
No it doesn’t.
Many kilometres between individual specimens is very different from an area of monoculture. Conifers generally are very specific ecologies. I have no information about the species (flora, fauna or funga) that colonise mature Metasequoia growing in the UK. How different is it from Scots Pine or European Larch? Particularly the larch as it is a deciduous conifer like the metasequoia. I don’t know. Perhaps in decades to come @TLM can give us some concrete evidence
No it doesn’t.
Many kilometres between individual specimens is very different from an area of monoculture. Conifers generally are very specific ecologies. I have no information about the species (flora, fauna or funga) that colonise mature Metasequoia growing in the UK. How different is it from Scots Pine or European Larch? Particularly the larch as it is a deciduous conifer like the metasequoia. I don’t know. Perhaps in decades to come @TLM can give us some concrete evidence
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Sorry, you're being short-sighted.
It most certainly DOES add up.
That tree will not support the wildlife surrounding it as well. It will have an impact. Equally, it will leach, and suck up, nutrients that may adversely affect plants in the immediate area. And that will knock on to affect those species that rely on those plants.
That one tree will affect species in, let's say, a 10m radius (not sure of the exact area, and happy to be tutored on the precise size. But I'm happy to accept it won't be acres upon acres).
That other tree, in the next county will have the same affect. That's another 1m radius.
And so on.
Just because they are disparate it does not mean the affects don't accumulate. Maybe not in one big snotty heap, but it's accumulative affect is the same.
Scots Pine and European Larch may not be native but they have been present in the country for many centuries and are considered naturalised. Ditto European Maple (or Sycamore or whatever you want to call it).
It most certainly DOES add up.
That tree will not support the wildlife surrounding it as well. It will have an impact. Equally, it will leach, and suck up, nutrients that may adversely affect plants in the immediate area. And that will knock on to affect those species that rely on those plants.
That one tree will affect species in, let's say, a 10m radius (not sure of the exact area, and happy to be tutored on the precise size. But I'm happy to accept it won't be acres upon acres).
That other tree, in the next county will have the same affect. That's another 1m radius.
And so on.
Just because they are disparate it does not mean the affects don't accumulate. Maybe not in one big snotty heap, but it's accumulative affect is the same.
Scots Pine and European Larch may not be native but they have been present in the country for many centuries and are considered naturalised. Ditto European Maple (or Sycamore or whatever you want to call it).
I kind of agree in principle but ...
The Chinese redwood would be beyond its natural limit here (Finland). I don't think there is much danger of it spreading.
Then again we live here in an area that is not naturally stabilized yet after the last ice age. A lot of plants are very slow to spread back. One of the best examples seems to be Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce) that grows about as well as the now main native pine Scots pine. Spreads too. Some Siberian species do not like it here Pinus sibirica, Abies sibirica and Larix sibirica are the main examples. Some North American species are close to being invasive, Abies balsamea as an example there.
As to insect life some reintroduced trees actually seem to have a positive effect, oak as main example there.
……. and just how different are the ecologies of metasequoia to that of any of the above?
What wildlife does it not support as well as the above?
How different are the species that colonise the naturalised coniferous species? To what extent?
What nutrients will it remove that these don’t?
What toxins might it disperse to the detriment of other species (as does beech)
What behaviour does it exhibit that might have an adverse effect on other species (s as does Ash)
Even if it were to escape its artificial culture, why shouldn’t it become naturalised like beech and some of the oaks? There’s are no Red, White and Blue trees. Invasion is unlikely as I have said previously, in that natural regeneration of Metasequois is unknown to me and I have been a dendrologist.
Just being the advocate of a different Devil
It may, of course, have no detrimental effect on the habitat.
Equally so, it absolutely may.
You have no way of knowing that and once the damage is done...well, it's too late to say, 'oops, looks like I was wrong.'
Introduction of non-native species is one of the key elements of the deterioration of UK wildlife who are unable to adapt to non-native species.
As for becoming naturalised?
Maybe.
But the landscape is in a MUCH different position to what it was hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. There's much less of it, so much less resilient to regeneration. If non-native species proliferate, and the wildlife suffers for it, there is much less wildlife now out there to enable it to cope with, and bounce back from, any setbacks. It's really that simple.
Equally so, it absolutely may.
You have no way of knowing that and once the damage is done...well, it's too late to say, 'oops, looks like I was wrong.'
Introduction of non-native species is one of the key elements of the deterioration of UK wildlife who are unable to adapt to non-native species.
As for becoming naturalised?
Maybe.
But the landscape is in a MUCH different position to what it was hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. There's much less of it, so much less resilient to regeneration. If non-native species proliferate, and the wildlife suffers for it, there is much less wildlife now out there to enable it to cope with, and bounce back from, any setbacks. It's really that simple.
@TLM relax and make your own decisions. I’d say that you aren’t going to hurt macro or micro ecology. It’s a beautiful tree. As neither Wander nor I can tell you which species it supports you will quite possibly be increasing diversity on your land.
@Wander You advise differently.
There is no truth, just the best interpretation of the evidence currently available.
@Wander You advise differently.
There is no truth, just the best interpretation of the evidence currently available.
Sorry, but there is quite a bit of truth.
For starters:
www.wcl.org.uk
There's lots more out there.
We each have to make our own choices.
For starters:
The impact of INNS on trees and woodlands
Alisha Anstee, Lead Policy Advocate for Tree Health, Biosecurity & Invasives at Woodland Trust, shares how invasive non-native species threaten our native trees, and how we all have a role to play to create a safer environment for our trees to thrive into future generations.
There's lots more out there.
We each have to make our own choices.
Not those but currently growing Lawsons from seed. I would suggest if you think the seed is viable to not sow it too thickly as pricking out is more tricky with close grown saplings. When you do pot them on you may need some deep pots as even a tiny sapling seems to have very long roots.
As for invasive, here in the UK I'm more pragmatic about growing introduced species. There's so many people growing and selling things like Lawsons or Metasequoia that there's virtually zero risk of me introducing anything invasive (my seeds were collected locally). On the plus side they will be used as a nurse crop to establish mostly native trees (although elm and ash are no longer options so perhaps a non-native has merit?). A debate for another thread.
1 tree isn't going to transform the place into Chernobyl. If it matures then it will transform the soil around it into a podzol which is pretty bleak for biodiversity. However, some birds such as goldcrests favour conifers and various other species will nest in it. In the grand scheme of things it's less harmful than a concrete pad but probably not as good as a native broadleaf. *shrugs*
I beg to disagree, it is a threatened species in its natural environment. The climate is changing and native species will go extinct whatever we do so it is as well to grow what will grow in the new world we are living in now. I have two of them and they are not bothering the native species of beech, willow, birch, oak etc one little bit, they are all fighting for their space and getting on with it. I used to have three but one of them died due to drought.
