10 foot Dawn Redwood - What would you do!?

[Tofi_Bonsai]

My local Greenhouse & Nursery has these 4 beauty nursery stock Dawn Redwoods! They are marked at a price point I'm willing to pay and will be picking one up.

So... How would you make the most of one of these?

The trunks at the base are every part of about 4-6 inches in diameter, at least, and look fantastic.

My first thought -

Is to let it grow the rest of the season and then trunk chop it next spring and develop a large size Bonsai from there.

Second thought -

Is to again, wait until next spring, and then start air layering a few new trees from the parent plant & developing a smaller bonsai from the bottom of the parent plant over a year or two.

 

[pandacular]

Finding dawn redwood trunks like this is a dime a dozen. I don’t say this at all to discourage, but to focus. They can be turned into downright badass trunks with the right care. I’m not the one who grew this trunk, but what made me bid on it were

- strong taper
- good roots, shallow pot
- nice deadwood
- strong primary structure

All of these will need to be built, and I can’t give you the care regime, only the encouragement. Good luck, have fun, and welcome to the nut house.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

My dawn redwoods are about a foot tall, so I'm not offering advice except:
the nearest tree in your second pic looks like a good candidate for two complete trees already. That big gap in branches on the trunk about three feet up or so would be a good spot for an air layer.

For more thorough advice, you can enter your general location, region, and/or growing zone for advice from more experienced members customized to your climate. This can be done by tapping on your profile. WELCOME to the forum!

 

[Shibui]

The good news is that Dawn Redwood bud easily from bare trunk so you can cut back almost anywhere and expect good new shoots to emerge.
Cuts will heal over if you allow some growth to help the healing process but stumps can also be converted to dead wood feature as shown above.

Is there some reason for delaying that chop until next year? I'd probably chop this summer and be 6 months ahead.
If you want to layer that could also be done now. You have not given a location but most places should have enough growing season left to get roots on a layer?

 

[Tofi_Bonsai]

Finding dawn redwood trunks like this is a dime a dozen. I don’t say this at all to discourage, but to focus. They can be turned into downright badass trunks with the right care. I’m not the one who grew this trunk, but what made me bid on it were

- strong taper
- good roots, shallow pot
- nice deadwood
- strong primary structure

All of these will need to be built, and I can’t give you the care regime, only the encouragement. Good luck, have fun, and welcome to the nut house.

I wish they were a dime a dozen here. For whatever reason, they seem to be a much less common tree to find locally. Especially this grown already.

Your tree looks amazing! That trunk is stellar.

 

[dbonsaiw]

The good news is that Dawn Redwood bud easily from bare trunk so you can cut back almost anywhere and expect good new shoots to emerge.

This. I have a thread on a DR I grew from a twig to a six inch base. Cut it back from over 20 ft this spring and it’s budding like crazy.

 

[leatherback]

here

If you add your location and climate zone to your profile, it will be easier to help you with questions in the future.

 

[Tofi_Bonsai]

The good news is that Dawn Redwood bud easily from bare trunk so you can cut back almost anywhere and expect good new shoots to emerge.
Cuts will heal over if you allow some growth to help the healing process but stumps can also be converted to dead wood feature as shown above.

Is there some reason for delaying that chop until next year? I'd probably chop this summer and be 6 months ahead.
If you want to layer that could also be done now. You have not given a location but most places should have enough growing season left to get roots on a layer?

My reasoning for delaying until next year was mostly based on my inexperience with Dawn Redwood and wanting to read up on them and giving it time to acclimate to it's new environment at my house.

 

[Tofi_Bonsai]

The good news is that Dawn Redwood bud easily from bare trunk so you can cut back almost anywhere and expect good new shoots to emerge.
Cuts will heal over if you allow some growth to help the healing process but stumps can also be converted to dead wood feature as shown above.

Is there some reason for delaying that chop until next year? I'd probably chop this summer and be 6 months ahead.
If you want to layer that could also be done now. You have not given a location but most places should have enough growing season left to get roots on a layer?

My reasoning for delaying until next year is mostly based on my inexperience with Dawn Redwood and wanting to give the tree time to acclimate to it's new home at my house!

 

[Jrmcmich]

I will only saw dawn redwood seems to be one of my easiest trees. Just water and it’s happy. I do think having a big enough pot is something to consider as mine is probably getting root bound so did some pruning recently to keep stress down if water required

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

We have a number of Redwoods, Dawn included, growing out.

The main reasons I chop these back is to create taper and keep the darn things from falling over in the windstorms.

Both reasons apply to these specimens,

Up pot frequently

PS Might avoid air layering now until plans are better honed

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Jrmcmich]

We have a number of Redwoods, Dawn included, growing out.

The main reasons I chop these back is to create taper and keep the darn things from falling over in the windstorms.

Both reasons apply to these specimens,

Up pot frequently

PS Might avoid air layering now until plans are better honed

Cheers
DSD sends

Another good pint on wind. Mine got knocked over before a haircut as well