Metasequoia glyptostroboides

[ahosey01]

I am building a dry detention pond at the lowest point of my yard (yard is on a hill).  During a 1 inch rain event, the pond will receive approximately 4500-6000 gallons of water.  Drainage will take place through the native soil, it is a clay/alluvium soil that still drains well and has a high organic matter content in the part of the yard.  I expect that the pond will drain anywhere from 12 hours to 2 days, depending on how long it had been since the last rain event.

Inside the walls of this detention pond, I am thinking of planting a Metasequoia glyptostroboides, along with a pair of dwarf Taxodium distichum - both of which are cool with wet soil.  4-6 feet below grade is the Hassayampa river water table, so the tree will have a permanent source of even more water once it gets down there.

Anyone have any experience with Metasequoia?  This will be a little bit of an experiment in my desert climate.

[Austinpalm]

Since you are experimenting, why not also try Glyptostrobus pensilis in lieu of the Taxodium. I have no experience with it or Metasequoia, have just been intrigued by both species for a while. 

[Chester B]

I had lots of them when I lived in Ontario Canada, probably about a dozen.  I think I had 4 or 5 varieties, I can't remember all the names at this point.  I know I had regular, goldrush and a bunch that were green with white stripes on the needles/leaves.  Not much to say except that they were relatively problem free and grew at a decent rate and were very cold hardy.  I had a very high water table and wanted to get some privacy quick so it was a good spot for them, I believe they will burn if they get too dry.  I also had a bald cypress but that seemed to grow much slower.

Unfortunately I moved so don't know how they are doing these days. If I ever get back there I plan to go see them.

[ahosey01]

So I dug the pond, and planted the metasequoia in it.  When it floods, oh man it floods!  And now, three or four months in the ground and after losing leaves, it’s budding.  Water table is only like 4-6 ft below the pond.

Floods:

 

And buds!!

Edited February 20, 2021 by ahosey01

[Xerarch]

The Dawn Redwoods are awesome. There are couple of them close to my house here in Akron at an arboretum. They are really cool, I have also seen some very large ones in Utah. Looks like you’ll have plenty of water, I don’t know how well they tolerate AZ heat though. 

[ahosey01]

15 minutes ago, Xerarch said:

The Dawn Redwoods are awesome. There are couple of them close to my house here in Akron at an arboretum. They are really cool, I have also seen some very large ones in Utah. Looks like you’ll have plenty of water, I don’t know how well they tolerate AZ heat though. 

I suppose we’ll find out.  It may do fine or it may be problematic.

My thoughts about that are as follows...  

First, where I’m at in Wickenburg, it cools off substantially at night, even in the summer.  It can be 115 in the day and 65 at night.

Second, in the desert - the general rule of thumb is that small leaves + more water = higher heat tolerance.  The spot it’s in is a thick, mucky, nasty heavy soil that’s part clay and part alluvium.  It drains moderately well in that, even during that giant rain where the picture above was taken, that whole pond was empty in a couple hours.  That said, it’s still just thick and wet.  So my thought is that it should be able to get pretty much all the water it needs, and it does have small leaves.

Third - these things have survived for 270 million years in basically their present form.  I gotta believe that a plant that lasts that long unchanged has a massive tolerance for otherwise-unfavorable growth conditions.

Of course I could be completely wrong and the thing croaks in June or July.  We’ll see.  It’ll either do that or grow another foot or two by then, LOL.

Edited February 20, 2021 by ahosey01

[Reyes Vargas]

Have you considered trying Taxodium mucronatum.  They don't produce the knees like Taxodium distichum will.  They do get huge though.

[NOT A TA]

Had a Metasequoia glyptostroboides on a dry hill at a nursery I managed back in the early 80's in  CT.   Only ran the irrigation in that area if it got very dry in July, August, Sept.   There were several around campus at UMASS Amherst profs used for Tree ID lab quizzes. Don't recall paying much attention to them and I never included them in and landscape designs I did.

[Matthew92]

I'm not sure about periodic inundation, but I know they like it more wet with some organic matter. People try to plant them here in dry, sandy areas of FL and they are very weak growers and hardly get to their potential.

[ahosey01]

I have not had time to post on this forum in a while… but here is an update.  This is after a one and a half week heat wave in the 110-115 range.  Has put on about a foot so far this year!!!

 

[ahosey01]

Pond filled up today…

[ahosey01]

Already noticeably fuller than two weeks ago when I posted the update shot.

[ahosey01]

Another month later.  After another 110F heatwave.  This thing just takes it, grows more and says “thank you sir, may I have another?”

[oasis371]

They are awesome trees, I planted mine as some mail order seedling a decade ago, and now it towers over everything else.  Yes, they do LOVE water and will accept standing water. I am amazed yours is at home in Arizona.  (Mine gets between 50-60 inches of rainfall on average in a HUMID climate.) Not a beach tree, though they have a low tolerance for salts.

[ahosey01]

Tree is now 4 feet tall.

Expecting it to be taller than me by the end of the growing season.

[ahosey01]

Update to this.... Here was the tree on June 12th:

And here it is today:

[ahosey01]

Bonus shot of the detention pond flooding during a monsoon storm, thanks to all the channeling of the water on the property into it.  What desert?

[Chester B]

Looks great I wouldn’t be surprised if it speeds up now that it’s getting pretty big. 

[Larix]

Hi,

I live in Melbourne, Australia. My climate is more of a Mediterranean climate. We have hot summers and mild winters.  We get hot air from the desert in the middle of Australia in summer.  We have around 30 days a year above 30 degrees Celsius, about 86 degrees F. 

I just love Metasequoia. I was inspired by your experiment. I've dug a pond about 6 meters in diameter and about 40cm deep. I can't dig too deep because of council regulations. I'll put my Metasequoia on the bank of this pond. 

I'd like to ask you about your climate. Is your summer dry or humid? Do you get hot winds?