Blue Atlas Cedar Seedlings

[Tak]

I started this Blue Atlas Seedlings and a few took.

However there seem to be about 1 to to inchs between soil and the start of the first needles.

Should I try to burry them deeper?

I also read a post from Jonas Dupuich about cutting the tap root and treating them as a cutting. I may try that with a few in a bit though I am a bit concerned as I feel lucky to even have 5 or 6 specimens at this point hahahaha.

Any other suggestions moving forward?

For context these spent 2 months in the fridge in a mix of coco-perlite-vermiculite. About half had root showing at that point. I planted them all. Those who had the root took well. The others so far not a lot of activity.

They don't seem to appreciate wet medium either.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I have worked with cedar seedlings and they are finicky about their roots. I'm not sure if seedling cutting works for them, but if you grow them in a bit of organic like you are, their root systems are pretty good for nebari making.
Don't repot them the first year, depending on how fast they grow maybe the second spring is best, or maybe the third.

They stay young and vigorous for abou 6-7 years, after that they grow a lot slower in my yard.

 

[Tak]

I have worked with cedar seedlings and they are finicky about their roots. I'm not sure if seedling cutting works for them, but if you grow them in a bit of organic like you are, their root systems are pretty good for nebari making.
Don't repot them the first year, depending on how fast they grow maybe the second spring is best, or maybe the third.

They stay young and vigorous for abou 6-7 years, after that they grow a lot slower in my yard.

Awesome that's great advice thanks!

I have them in a mix of coco choir-perlite-pine bark at the moment. I'll wait and see how they turn out. I know this is a lifetime project at this point but pretty fun/exciting little experiment!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Do not be surprised when you find out they grow faster than expected, and they like water a lot!
Coco coir and perlite and bark sounds like a good starter mix to me. I use something similar for all my conifer seedlings, since the root system automatically goes radial most of the times, and if I keep the containers tiny for the first year, they don't make tap roots. The lack of growth and keeping them short at first, nulls the need for seedling cutting all together. The buds are low, the roots spread in all directions; that's what we do seedling cutting for.

Rowdy birds have flipped mine off of the benches a couple times, they bounced back for about 5 times, number 6 in dead summer did them in.

I wonder though, if it's a lifetime project. My seedlings picked up speed in year 3, sending out an inch or four in all branches. Cutting back an established trunk and regrowing it from a branch, sure, that takes ages. But I think this is one of those cases where you might be faster with seedlings. The roots are easy to fix, they grow quite fast, and you don't need to hack back to a weak branch; instead you work from strong stuff all the time.
Make use of the escape branch technique, it does speed up the thickening a lot!
Pruning the terminal buds of branches after the spring growth, can get them to push a second and third flush.

 

[Tak]

Awesome info thanks!

I'll try to document the journey here so perhaps others can refer to it

Much appreciated!

JP