Normal Metasequoia dormant bud and twig appearance

9 years ago

Believe it or not, I've never had a Metasequoia of my own until I grew some from seed this spring.

I gave most away and kept two, since that is what I had room for.

They are now (mostly) bare. I have concerns about our quick hard freezes...we were freeze free until the first week of November, then two nights in the mid teens and a few in the twenties the following week.

The pic below shows a closeup of the trunk (about 3/8" caliper) and buds. The trunk as it grew developed these "splits" revealing green inner bark underneath. That green had turned more brownish green since the leaves have dropped. My concern is that is freeze damage to the wood, but may be normal, I'm not sure.

The buds, however, are so green and plump they almost look like swelling spring buds!

1. Does the stem look ok?

2. Do the dormant buds typically look so green even at this time of year?

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Comments (6)

hairmetal4ever
Original Author
9 years ago
Another look.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
one spring... when mine was young.... it lost its buds... twice.. to very hard freezes ... and i am talking a MI freeze.. not your z7 MD ideas of what cold is... lol ...

as far as i am concerned.. there is little to worry about bud loss ... if it laughed at my z5 MI ...

the bark looks like its maturing .. NBD ...

my only concern would be the pot its in ... and wintering that over properly ... with no special rules for this plant in particular .... a tree is a tree ...

ken
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hairmetal4ever
Original Author
9 years ago
I mounded shredded oak (with some maple and sycamore/planetree in there) leaves several feet around and about 3" deep over the pots, after moving the trees to almost up against the north side of the house, in complete shade (to avoid too much freeze/thaw or early budding).

Also sheltered from wind. I think they should be fine, I have overwintered Japanese maples this way in containers. In zn 7. Not sure I'd try that in z5.

This post was edited by hairmetal4ever on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 13:13
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
9 years ago
Yours look normal but still green. My photo is from one I have in a pot. My pots are in a sheltered low spot between my driveway, house, hill and a couple trees. The lack of full sun makes it easier for me to keep up with their watering lol.

My guess is yours are a week or two behind mine thanks to your zone and yours have grown much much faster.

I bet you do ok. My Ogon was still full of bright yellow foliage when we were in the 20's two weeks ago. That got my attention but FWIW it does not LOOK to have been damaged.
hairmetal4ever
Original Author
9 years ago
Is yours also just one season old, toronado?

Mine were still mostly green, with only some lower/interior foliage taking on autumn color, when the hard freeze hit. Initially I thought the foliage was toast, but it actually survived, but then turned to fall color almost as soon as they thawed out, albeit a muted and somewhat "washed out" color, probably from some level of freeze damage to the foliage. However, the color lasted maybe one day and most of the foliage dropped off the second day, except a few stragglers that are still clinging on.

As a side note, a lot of trees around here (of various species) that still had leaves at that time of the hard freeze, are still hanging onto dead leaves that are only just now dropping, even some trees that were still mostly GREEN at the time. The freeze was so sudden I don't think the abcission layer developed properly.

This post was edited by hairmetal4ever on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 22:06
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
9 years ago
I have a cutting that is a year old, several in pots that are maybe 4 years old and growing slowly thanks to the shade or cheap soil and I have my 5 year old Ogon and my 11 year old regular Metasequoia in the ground. Now all loom the same. When our first cold snap hit the little ones in the pots were peach already, my ground trees were mostly in summer mode.