I grew 1,200 Giant Sequoia trees on my balcony this year 

There's nothing cooler than somebody geeking out on nature. Here's to you, cool nerd.

FYI, your bedroom is haunted by a grey ghost dog.

I hope you will have the time to write up your findings into a paper/instruction and publish them! Hopefully you’ll find a home for the rest of your sapling before they become too big to remain on your balcony.

A small tip! Please leave an outtro on your videos. This enables us to like the video on TV's before it just dissappears at the end, unlike phones where it hangs around. Great video. Thanks for your intensive work.

OMG!!!! I've also been doing this for years and I have also been developing my own methods. I honestly can't believe how you have managed to get such a high percentage rate, so much more difficult than people realise. If I try to germinate 100 seeds I can often expect to get 5 trees to a good enough size to plant outside. So weird that I follow you for your mountaineering content but you've dropped a video with the exact info I need for something else.

This is great info. Would love to see a follow up video with a care guide for young saplings

I have grown oak, judas, wisteria, pinus radiata, all becoming larger trees in large pots. Still healthy . Love growing, strangely satisfying hobby all for future bonsai. Also have a 10year old sequoia doing great.

Greetings from a fellow hobby tree grower. I grow oak and linden from local seed. It started with our children brought home a wool ski hat full of oak seed from the day-care yard. The survivors we planted in memory of grandfather and I just have continued from that year. Cheers from Finland

Im from northern california and now live in seattle where some scientists are talking about encouraging assisted migration of giant sequoia trees: so this information is very helpful in preserving these trees within their native range and their potential future native range.

Fabulous! Mr. Johnny Appleseed of Sequoias. You educate and inspire me and now let's get to the rest of the wold!

Excellent work with this experiment. YES, please put together a guide video on germinating and growing sequoia trees!

Questions: 1. What was your overall budget? 2. Although it’s been over a year, do you still have any seedlings? 3. If you could do it all again, what would you do differently? 4. Would they be able to survive in the following United States locations? Elko-Nevada, Luna-New Mexico, Valencia-New Mexico, Hondale-New Mexico, Van Buren-Arkansas, Cheraw-South Carolina. 5. Is your guide only to be used in the UK? Thank you for all of your help!

I've been growing and planting sequoias and coast redwoods for some years now, and eventhough I live in the pacific northwest I can tell you it's no easy task, especially getting them to a point where they are mature enough to plant in a permanent location. just discovered your channel, thank you so much, I'm gonna try what you did. Hopefully I'm successful.

Thanks George for making this video It helped me I'll also plant some sequoias for my future generations and as a symbol which would represent me and I'd live 3000 years via this tree 🌲 .

Can't even beleave you put so much time and effort to proper collecting the data and watching this experiment. Great work! I hope you will publish your work with all data somewhere

I love the scientific approach you've taken. It would be amazing if you could share your data with the rest of the community.

Wow, how beautiful. Here’s a big hug and kiss to all of you who plant trees.

Thank you, and congratulations I have a philosophy of "plant the seed!" If it germinates, you've won, if it doesn't germinate, then you haven't lost anything. Two years ago three trays of thirty-six corned-beef tins, each with one apple core. I estimated 1,500 apple trees and gave them away to visitors who told me "You're a GENIUS", but I thought "It's what apple trees have been doing for yonks". Cheers, Chris

You and your teammate did something amazing science here. We need more of like you and wishing a widespread growth of those wonderful trees in your area.

Thank you so much! I too have been frustrated by the anecdotal information on the topic so i was really refreshed to see what you did here and very appreciative that you posted it. I'd pay $10 for your published findings... you have to be considering it

The Giant Sequoia is an awe inspiring species, well done!

Hey everyone!!! A written up quick growing guide is now available here: superlativetrees.com/pages/growing-giant-sequoia-from-seed If you live in the UK, you can now buy your seeds directly from me: superlativetrees.com/collections/all Buying your seeds from me helps to support my research and guide production going forward. Unfortunately, due to legislation, I can only sell to people in the UK. I'm working towards a full research report based on this experiment, it's not fully ready yet, but will be put up on the website once it's done :)

Congrats. This is a highly thought out experiment with very important data that should be published in a botanical/agricultural journal for a wider audience. Please do so.

this is what science is all about 🙏 one dude saying "hey, i wonder why this is the case - lemme check that" and hyper focussing on one extremely specific area which wont be relevant for most most most people, but worth its weight in gold for a select few people who want to build on this exact topic love it

Hi George, Thanks for all the work you've put in. It could definitely help me. I've come up with a plan to increase the biodiversity in a young forest (15 years I think with only couple early species) by helping nature along. I'll try and use my knowledge of food forests and permaculture. I will grow seedlings of local trees that are really big so they have proved themselves. There are two sequoias with two miles which I want to use seeds from. Your findings and possibly upcoming guide should help me along. Now I need to find some volunteers to help and offers growing space and get going. We'll have a great forest by the time I'm ready for my wheelchair. :-)

THANK YOI SO MUCH FOR THIS!! I and I’m certain Mother Nature appreciates what you have done. I certainly do and can’t wait to plant my own little seedlings 🌱💚 Here’s to a greener tomorrow 🙌

Great video! I did exactly what you have done 20 years ago and found that all Redwood seeds, Coast, Dawn and Sequoia sprout extremely easy on a wet paper towel in a warm dark environment. No cold stratification was needed. I was able to sprout more seeds than I could possibly use. Unfortunately for me, I live in the wrong area, Charleston, SC and the only trees that would grow in this area are the Dawn Redwood. I tried really hard for a few years with the other two but they would all eventually die at some point. You should have much better success in your part of the world.

BRAVO No mention of using a heating matt under the flats to encourage germination. Another tip; Dust the seeds with a rooting hormone B4 sowing.

Thank you! I finally bought my home and will start a project, plant pecan and other trees that help native birds (especially maritacas) from brazil. your data will help me a lot! again, thank you!

Helped me, I really hate starting tasks where the common knowledge is word of mouth, and after living near yosemite, sequia, and Crescent City (Redwood national park) Each different homes, I have a love for these trees and they can grow in Indiana with a little work. But I didnt want to without sound knowledge due to the long lead time for failure. This give me the confidance to try it out and see if I can add a 'little' guy to my house! Just bought seeds, HERE WE GO! Thanks to you!!!

Hi George, I've been watching your channel since your PhD days. This episode helped me in the sense that it inspired me to think about a topic I never thought of before, and to consider dedicating some of my balcony space to grow them and plant them in areas around me. I look forward to your guide!

Plant them along coastal areas and large bodies of water. They will adapt and acclimate over time. Imagine 1000 years in the future where you’re 1200 trees number more than 12000,000 flourishing!

You are a sequoia pioneer, creating a legacy! I need at least 1,000 sequoias to reforest cleared property in Canada, will also include other species. Can`t find any trees or seeds. I get ridiculed for inquiring until I say I planted one over 10 years ago and it`s doing great (from a retired nursery). Apparently the one I have should produce cones soon...I`m also going to try cuttings. These trees inspire me and invoke mystical, magical awesomeness.

You’re a king. Stumbled on this vid literally 2 minutes after scarifying the seed coat of my two sequoia seeds and setting them in water.. I can’t stratify them anymore because they’ll freeze but this is an incredible video. You have done great work and I thank you.

excellent study, thanks for your time. i love to grow tree seeds that i find on walks and explorations with friends and this will help me loads! great video!

Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into this research, you're amazing! My somewhat estranged adult son just gave me a tiny packet of 40 sequoia seeds. There was something, maybe, profound about this. Wish me luck.

Got a smile out of the STATA graphs. Excellent work.

It's a great research. I'm from Brazil and it's a good guide. Hope you include Maple trees in this research 😊

I’ve always been thankful for the Victorians (and anyone else) who brought these wonderful trees to this country even though they knew they’d never see them in their full glory. Now, I’m thankful to you. What a wonderful thing you’ve done. Brilliant. 🥳

More advice please :) like what soil or environment does the seedling need? I am amazed by your patience and what a great work and an experiment. Thanks !

The Man Who Germinated Trees. Well done! Hope they all go to good homes that take good care of them. If so, you'll have sequestered more carbon than you've used in your entire life by the time those trees are mature.

This video is absolutely excellent. Thank you

Brilliant . Am so pleased you had the love and the patience to do this.

Thank you for sharing the results from your experiment and your dedication! Spending hours counting seeds and logging data is no easy task! Mad respect!!!

Your a bad ass and should give classes for two hundred dollars and all the students get a free tree after the class is complete.

thank u for this! i bought giant sequia tree seeds and i didnt know how to grow them in the best way. your data is so clear and helpful :)

Thank you for your contribution.

Awesome! I too grow all three types of redwood. They are fascinating trees to grow. I have planted some out in the countryside near me. It's cool knowing I'm not the only one obsessed with these trees! Looking forward to any updates in the future.

You are a true academic. Really impressed with your study design. Thanks for useful, data-based info!

Coming home from nights out then checking for hours!! Dedication to the cause 🙌🙌🙌

some useful ideas for future success. seeds require dark to germinate. the thing about roots is the sun will kill them. paper towel works but is good for growing mold or fungus. my best results have been from getting cheap sponges. the no soak kind. pluck a chunk out and put the seed there after the sponge has been soaked. you can vut the sponge into 1-4's or whatever and put a few seeds in each one. it holds the moisture doesnt grow bad stuff and blocks the sun or light but will warm up and cool down with the light cycle so the plant will start to grow.

Thank you for the info. You, and Will with the assist, are doing some good work doing all that research, experimenting and data collecting, and letting the people know! Good stuff! I just got some seedlings myself from the Johnsteen company, here in the U.S. Planning to make a bonsai out of both my Coastal Redwood and the Giant Sequoia; however, after watching this, I probably will feel more comfortable in the future going through with germinating my own seeds. I kind of have my own anecdotes in the works right now though for stratification, 6 Colorado Blue Spruce and 5 Norwegian Spruce seeds I just got in the fridge this evening, hoping they both germinate at least 1 good one *apiece..we shall see...

I hope you continue with the gardening experiments. This was cool to watch

Thanks!

This is amazing. I don’t often watch videos that literally leave me open-mouthed but this did! I’ve been trying and failing to grow at home for the last year, all the conflicting research led me to failings. I’m going to start again today, thank you ♥️

What a terrific effort you made here bro! Thank you very much. Please allow me to share a couple bucks with you for this, to show my appreciation. I love these trees. I grew up about 20 minutes from the General Sherman tree and fortunately my parents loved to take me and my 3 siblings to see the Giant Sequoias. It was an unforgettable experience and I hope and pray that more people will plant these all around the world in great number for prosperity

I love to see people doing real science at home! I have been doing my own research on growth from Seedling to Sapling, mostly with already "born" as you put it, starters about an inch tall in most cases, but I would love to try from seed. I got interested in growing Red Woods because I thought they would make excellent Bonsai candidates. They are so robust and swift growing you hardly need to wait the years and years it can take to safely dwarf other species. I am really looking forward to buying the pdf of your results and hearing/reading about your ongoing observations!

Great experiment! I used to grow Giant Sequoias from seed a lot when I was younger! Seed quality is a big factor in success. I have tried from mature (ish) British trees in the past, but even the oldest British giant redwoods are barely old enough to produce viable seed.

Just ran across your video, and had to say thank you! Videos like this are extremely helpful, well done sir!!!

They are so so cute! I’m so happy they were born and I hope the ones you gave away go to good homes ❤ Thanks for sharing this is beautiful!

Well studied data. Appreciate your effort in compiling this data.

WOW. I appreciate all the work you put into this..and these are some very expensive seeds now. I've really struggled with growing ones in my area, more than any other tree. Your findings make total sense to me.

love this! Your findings are the same as mine for sequoia sempervirens and almost all other garden plants. Waiting longer is the same as cold stratification given plenty of seeds and fresh uninfected soil. There are garden plants that NEED stratification and soaking, but most don't.

Your effort was not in vain and is much appreciated! I now have an idea what to do, thank you!

This is brilliant work. Thank you for sharing the data.

Great job 🎉ear periGeorge!! I planted a single Dawn Redwood in Michigan, it grew to about 5 meters over a ten year period! I haven’t seen it in ten years but it should be at least ten meters tall now!

That is so impressing! Thank you for your immense work! I've just ordered several hundreds of seeds and I also was confused by different ways of germination so I started searching for more, can't wait to try your method now. Thank you so much! Wish you happiness and new discoveries!:)

This video helping me a lot,greetings from Hungary 🇭🇺. Very informative,thanks for this

I JUST got a sequoia seed ring and fallen sequoia bark necklace from an etsy shop called 'growgoodcalifornia' because i miss seeing Sequoias everyday. im so happy to come across your video! thanks for sharing :,) it brings back good memories! This is so amazing keep it up, I just sent this to the grandkids

Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into this!!

This information is exactly what I needed!! You did in fact help somebody!!

Thank you for making and sharing this amazing video! It's very interesting, and inspiring. Your methods can be applied to most all seeds. I hope you found homes for all your tree babies.

Wow ! I just sprouted about 2 dozen and was looking for information to grow them. Im impressed how many you grew. Good to help endangered or threatened tree species! Great work ! 👏 😊

I absolutely JUMPED when Will suddenly appeared out of nowhere

Your record keeping must be an outstanding system

I really appreciate the effort you put into this. It's beyond helpful!

That's amazing, I've been wanting to do it for a long time and plant them all over my home city. Thank you for the video

Right now I have about 200 (maybe more. I didn't count them) seeds in cold stratification after overnight soak. As I write this they have been in the fridge 2 weeks. I guess I will leave them in another 3 weeks and then sow them in pots in an outdoor shaded area. I'll do the 45 days then see what happens. I am in California at about 2800ft altitude near Big Trees State Park. Wish me luck George!!

Fascinating! Thank you for doing this, and for sharing your findings! Would love to grow some of these sometime. I’m not currently aware of other info out there so I’d be very interested in a guide!

Thanks! Looking forward to your publishing of these results!

Love you for that. Thank you

This will help lots of people thank you so much. They are my favourite tree. One day, if that day ever comes, I would love to have a huge property where I can grow a forest of them. I think many others will too, especially since so many were cut down decades ago and not replanted.

This is amazing info!!! So useful! I also wonder if the findings work on other types of trees too. Fascinating. Ty for your time!!

Thanks for this video! Super helpful as I am wanting to grow my own giant redwoods!

Wow you two did a lot of work and research on these. I’m very impressed. Great job guys and hopefully a lot of the seedlings will live and grow into giants👍

Well done! OVer the last few weeks I scoured the ground under the giant sequoias in a local park here in Oregon. I brought home all the cones to discover the one and only green cone I found dried and hundreds of seeds fell out. Zero seeds from the brown cones. I returned to the park a week later and out of the 15 or so mature sequoias the one that gave me the green cone had several more green cones under it. They are drying now. I'll continue to collect these cones and assume that single cone single tree that is mapped with a photo of the tree would add some value to further experiments. Now to sprout some using your updated data!

I hope more people start germinating unique plants like the Giant Sequoia just to keep them around they take thousands of years to grow and need to be handed down to generations to be taken care of.

I'm so glad you guys are doing this and I stumbled onto it! They're notorious to propogate for me, it took me three years and a few hundred seeds to get one to germinate and I bodged it, rookie... I think it'd be ironic to have one of the biggest trees in the world as a bonsai.

I'm really digging this video! I've been growing Sequoia seeds for years now, indoors and out on my balcony... When I first started I had really low germination rates, but nowadays I toss the seeds in the freezer for a few days and that has bumped it up exponentially. My biggest issue up until today is transplanting the tiny trees into bigger containers. A friend of mine recommended seaweed fertilizer to stimulate root growth and so far I've managed to successfully transplant two seedlings, while still waiting on three to be transplanted. These buggers have plenty of obstacles to overcome when you first start growing them, however I find that it does become easier as you get more experience year after year. How are your trees doing present day? I'm curious! Please share an update

My man here is really expanding the knowledge of humanity and doing it humbly... massive respect from mexico my friend

Thank you for your help... You've helped Earth❤ It was worth it =)

Wow.. Good job👍 can you show those trees on these days. Hello from Kazakstan👋

Yesterday I was at my local botanical garden and found a Cal Redwood cone on the floor with seeds in. I am hoping to do some gorilla gardening around my local area and at the nature reserve I work at as we lack any evergreens. Thanks for the video. If you have any saplings that need homes I’d be happy to come to an arrangement!

This is good stuff I'm glad you did it and shared it

I have ordered seeds and will try to grow at least one giant sequoia in Norway (64°N)

I’m planning to grow as many as I can this spring! This video is so helpful ❤ if you can give any more of your top tips that would be much appreciated! X

Huge amount of work! Thank you!

ty for your time

Cheers mate, Great vid. Really appreciate you sharing your data.

Has anyone tried the Sequoia Sempervirens in the UK? These tall trees live on the coast. One tree named Hyperion is 116 meters tall (380'). Their trunks grow 5-8 meters in diameter. They grow fast until they are over 30 meters tall and then more slowly. Thirty-meter trees are common in California backyards. They tolerate temperatures -9C to 38C well, with the mean temperature between 10C and 16C. There is also a Chinese Sequoia that grows more slowly than the other two kinds but is deciduous and has beautiful foliage.