# How Hard Is It To Raise Redwood Trees From Seed?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 19, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642 "2003-03-19T21:57:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/1 "2003-03-19T21:57:37Z")
I was in S. Francisco a few months ago, and I took a few Redwood tree cones with me. The cones have opened, and dropped their seeds…I am trying to sprout them in potting soil. Can I raise these trees from seed? or is redwood treecultivation difficult?
How long do i need to wait to get one of these babies to 300 feet high? I’ll be the envy of the neighborhood!
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/2 "2003-03-20T01:03:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ralph124c \*
> \*\*How long do i need to wait to get one of these babies to 300 feet high? I’ll be the envy of the neighborhood! \*\*
I don’t know much about growing Redwoods, but I imagine that it would be at least a couple of hundred years before they reached that sort of height.
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### Author:  [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/3 "2003-03-20T01:07:30Z")
It’s probably not as easy as you’d like. Redwoods exist in only a fairly small geographic range, but I’m sure you can grow them in any compatible climate. Redwoods are really tough trees–they usually survive forest fires just fine, by virtue of their sheer width protecting their inner core from flames. I’m not sure how they’d handle, say, droughts or bad soil, but then again, I ain’t a botanist.
And something tells me those babies take millennia to grow to their heights, so, unless you have pointy ears and forge Rings in your backyard barbecue pit, you’d be long dead before the thing grew up.
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### Author:  [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/4 "2003-03-20T01:08:16Z")
Go here to help your little seedling along
[http://www.bountifulgardens.org/seed-saving.html](http://www.bountifulgardens.org/seed-saving.html)
and go here to learn about the mighty redwood
[http://www.forestworld.com/public/silvics/conifers/sequoia/sempervirens\_c1.html](http://www.forestworld.com/public/silvics/conifers/sequoia/sempervirens_c1.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Sprouts are commonly about 60 to 90 cm (24 to 36 in) tall at the end of the first year but may be more than 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. In one instance, a fire killed all sprouts around a stump. About 300 new sprouts appeared within a few days, and at the end of one growing season many reached 2.1 m (7 ft). Sprouts grow more rapidly than seedlings and the initial impetus lasts many years. However, the best phenotypes at age 40 to 80 in stands originating from both sprouts and seedlings often are found to be of seedling origin (27).
So if we take 7 feet per year growth, it’ll take at least 42 years to optimally get 300 feet. Your grandchildren would be so proud!!
😃
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/5 "2003-03-20T01:09:38Z")
Some sources I’ve read say that second-growth redwoods grow faster than old-growth redwoods.
By faster, it might only take about 80 years to get to 200 feet in height.
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/6 "2003-03-20T13:28:18Z")
How about those other interesting California species…like the Monterey Cypress trees? I’d like to grow a few of them too…maybe I can get the seeds by mail?
I’ve planted my seeds…I’m eagerly awaiting their growth.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/7 "2003-03-20T15:00:36Z")
42 years to get to 200 feet? Why aren’t these popular landscape trees? Can I grow them In Minnesota?
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### Author:  [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/8 "2003-03-20T15:54:57Z")
My uncle-in-law has a seed cone which he claims he took (illegally) from General Sherman, [the largest tree by volume in the world](http://www.nps.gov/seki/shrm_pic.htm). It may hve been as much as 50 years ago, but maybe as little as 20 years ago. He planted a seed in his (now our) back yard at the time, and it is now about 40-50 feet tall…
hrh
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### Author:  [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/9 "2003-03-20T16:48:58Z")
From [http://www.ppgn.com/evergreen2.html](http://www.ppgn.com/evergreen2.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Century old natives to the coastal “fog belt” of California grow to 350 feet. Most gardeners should expect 70-90 ft. in 25 years. The yearly growth rate is about 4-6 ft. They make excellent screens.
There are several century old redwoods, sequoia and wellingtonia grown in the UK…none are more than 180 feet or so.
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### Author:  [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/10 "2003-03-20T16:54:20Z")
We do have a Douglas Fir at 212 ft however, which is 175 years old.
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### Author:  [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/11 "2003-03-20T17:38:20Z")
[This](http://bonsai-mart.com/dawn_redwood_bonsai_starter.html) is a dawn redwood bonsai kit.
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### Author:  [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/12 "2003-03-20T18:30:45Z")
Yea my buddies grandfather smuggled a small sapling (~6 inches tall) out of California up to Vancouver Canada.
It’s been about 18 years and this badboy is a good 20-25 feet tall. Very cool.
Anyway he’s grown about a dozen or so trees from it’s seeds and has passed them on to as many people as possible to spread the species in BC.
I’m getting one for my backyard!
MtM
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/13 "2003-03-20T23:09:33Z")
“Sprouts are commonly about 60 to 90 cm (24 to 36 in)”
Ummm, aren’t those sprouts just part of the original tree & not themselves from seeds?
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### Author:  [@LtningBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LtningBug)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/14 "2003-03-24T03:58:20Z")
**ralph** , it all depends on where you plan on growing this tree. The reason the redwoods are so big in CA is because of all the rain they get. If you’re living in a place like CO, your tree will grow much more slowly (if at all). There’s a tree by my parents house that was maybe 5 or 6 feet when my dad built the house. Now, twenty+ years later, it’s probably closer to 15 - 18 feet tall. Now, that’s at about the other end of the tree-growing spectrum from CA.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/15 "2003-03-24T15:55:38Z")
Interesting, but you can buy all sorts of trees from [ebay.com](http://ebay.com)
100 redwood trees, $199.00, one year old.
Item # 2305797911
believe it or not 🙂
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-raise-redwood-trees-from-seed/162642/16 "2003-03-24T16:13:03Z")
Two questions:
1. Wouldn’t that commit a LOT of backyard space? I can’t imagine that root structure shares real well. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong.
2. Where to the cones grow? Wouldn’t one of those suckers falling from the top be close to lethal?