Would it be possible to grow a redwood in Texas (Houston area)?
I know that the climate here is different from northern California, but I would like to give it a shot if possible.
2 Responses
jellybeanchick
21 May 2011
carolathome2099
21 May 2011
I think the bigger (LOL) problem would be the root system. Underground about five feet in Houston is almost all clay, and under that salty sandy loam. I would think a really large tree will not be able to push it’s roots far enough down to survive, and if it did, the minerals are not right. Think about the earth those redwoods are growing in in northern Calif. Probably hundreds of feet of nice mulched black earth.
I think the biggest issue might be climate. The root system is actually pretty shallow – a lot of our redwoods here in CA are growing on rocky hillsides. However, the climate that they naturally grow in is coastal – foggy for much of the year, with as much as 40 feet or more of rain. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. At my college in the Central Valley, which gets quite hot and dry in the summer, they had a redwood grove. You might have to give your tree a LOT of water in the beginning, maybe even planting it near a stream or lake if possible. Wikipedia says that redwoods have been successfully grown in East Texas, so you might want to do some more research into how they accomplished it there.