Re: Redwoods
- To: Richard Starkeson <j*@dnai.com>
- Subject: Re: Redwoods
- From: W* B* <b*@math.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 14:38:05 -0800 (PST)
Just a note about redwood roots. The roots become a matted carpet, fusing
together (grafted) to protect trees in high winds. I sadly discovered
this when I had to remove two trees damaging my house foundation, and I
used round-up on the stumps to prevent stump growth. I should have covered
the stump with black plastic to prevent light from starting new growth.
Elly Bade
On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Richard Starkeson wrote:
> Zeki-
> How strong is your north wind? It is unlikely that the wind will
> seriously damage the trees' growing tips. In the California coast
> range, where the native stands grow, they often have winter storms with
> 70+ mile per hour winds at the exposed tops of the trees. Tree tips are
> sometimes damaged by lightning, but other branches then begin growing
> as the tree tip. We will never know what height they will ultimately
> attain in your locality - that is something only future generations can
> know. They take well over 100 years to reach maximum height, and
> continue growing for hundreds of years.
>
> They do like lots of water, although they will survive with less. In
> California, they get most of their water by using their leaves to
> intercept fog droplets, and create their own rain. Since there is fog
> in most parts of the year, they have water for most of the year. They
> have a very efficient surface root system. It is so efficient it is
> difficult to grow very much underneath them, because their fine-fibered
> roots are able to grab every droplet of moisture that comes their way.
> They do best with lots of mulch underneath them. A typical redoood
> forest will have up to 1/4 m of leaves and branches underneath them, in
> various states of decomposition, with the root fibers almost at the
> surface of this muclch layer..
>
>
