Can Giant Sequoia be raised East of the Mississipi?

Question

I have a friend who says that he is going to start farming them in Tennesee

Answer 1

That would be a very tricky proposition. Giant Sequoias are hard enough to raise even in the environment where they occur naturally -- they are highly dependant on specific soil types, lack of ground clutter, abundant water from streams, and regular fire cycles.

I live in the coastal ranges of California (where the coast redwoods are found) and grew up in the Sierra Nevada mountains (where the giant sequoias are found) and can tell you that even in their ideal habitats, they only grow in very tightly defined clusters -- they simply come to a dead stop at the edge of this valley or over the top of that ridge or just past this bend in a river, because something in the environment changes right there at that point. Often it is something as subtle as what time of day that particular part of the land is in the shadow of a nearby peak, you can tell by sitting there all day and watching the arc of the shadow as it moves across the area. In these cases it is probably controlling whether or not they have dew on their needles while the sun is shining on them or something like that, but who knows? And at the same time, sometimes you will find a single great big one growing well down in a ravine where there is nothing but rocks and a meltwater stream, and you have to think "how can this thing even survive here, it never gets any sun and there is no soil!" but there it is, probably 1500 years old, splitting the mountain apart and reaching up towards the sky.

Here is an article with some good basic information about the giant sequoias:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Sequoia

Redwood trees in general are highly tailored to their specific environment and so far as I know thay have never been sucesfully grown outside those areas. This is part of the reason for the big logging controversies of the west coast, because unlike many other types of trees it is just not presently feasible to raise these in large human-planted "tree farms" which could be regualrly harvested without wholesale destruction of the ecosystem which the sequoias anchor.

Answer 2

He will probably have to settle for redwoods which will grow anywhere the cold weather gets no lower than about 30F at night.
And they are fast growers. We have 10 acres on the Clifornia central coast with several redwoods that were planted 30 years ago and are now over 100 feet tall.
Btw, if you want a different redwood, there is also one that drops it leaves in the fall. Yes it has leaves! We have one of them. That one might be able to be grown in a colder climate.

Answer 3

specific. The observe "tree" basically describes the habit or advance style taken - to that end a super, woody (perennial) plant. The observe "plant" frequently includes all photosynthesisers, yet oftentimes describes basically green (land) vegetation (different than for maximum or all algae, all lichens, as properly as non-photosynthesisers including [non-lichenised] fungi).

Answer 4

Yes, they make excellent ornamental tree's and can be planted all over the east as they have been. And grown all over the world.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benmore.jpg