8
in other words
september20
2018
Diggin’ in the Dirt: A Love of Redwoods
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University
Extension Service - Columbia County
An inordinate love of redwoods
Rod Nastrom has a love affair
with trees. He credits that to a child-
hood spent around logging and lumber
mills in the McMinnville area and an
early visit to the giant coastal redwoods
in northern California. We met recently
to talk about the coastal redwoods that
he has been planting on his timber and
Christmas tree farm in Warren. Some of
you in the Vernonia area may have rural
property that might be suitable for red-
woods.
In 1985, you couldn’t buy red-
wood seedlings, so Rod started his own
from 2” tall redwood sprouts he started.
He grew them out to 4” tall and then
planted. He “guarded those first four
trees with my life.” Of the original four,
one is now 142 inches in circumference
or 45 inches in diameter, two are about
96 inches (31 inch diameter), and one
is 75 inches (23 inch diameter). Darned
impressive for 33 years of growth.
In the mid-1990s, redwood
seedlings became more available. Rod
now has hundreds of redwoods at all
stages growing on his property.
Rod is a careful observer and
interpreter of his tree planting efforts.
When he got started, there wasn’t much
written on planting coastal redwoods, no
surprise since there weren’t any seed-
lings to plant. Part of his property had
been in fields when he purchased it and
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he quickly discovered that seedlings
planted into weeds in the full sun won’t
do well, especially if the seedlings were
less than a foot tall. In general, he pre-
fers seedlings that are 15-24+ inches tall.
The ideal time to plant is early February.
He did note that in full-sun, some seed-
lings turn coppery. But Rod says, “don’t
give up on them, they aren’t dead, and
they will turn green.” Western red cedar
trees have a similar annoying pattern.
Rod has a lot of microclimates
on his property. He started his serious
redwood planting in a north/south can-
yon under a canopy of alders. There are
a lot of seeps and springs coming out
of both sides of the canyon wall. He
found that trees planted under a decidu-
ous tree canopy grew much better than
trees planted in full sun on higher, open
ground. He reasons that the redwood
trees are actively photosynthesizing
perhaps a month before the alder leaves
come out and several months after they
drop. They are also getting recycled min-
erals and nitrogen from the alders. And
the trees are somewhat protected from
temperature extremes. Trees planted
under Douglas fir grow spindly and tall.
There is too much shade and he doesn’t
recommend it.
Rod has never lost a coastal red-
wood directly to winter weather alone.
He does some lower limb pruning when
the trees are 4 to 6 inches in diameter
but not before. But Rod found that if he
prunes off branches of well-established
trees within 2-3 months of cold weath-
er, the trees can be killed or have sever
die-back. As a consequence, he does
pruning in late May to early June. He
also discovered that if he prunes out
lower limbs all around a tree, there is
a good chance that the tree will pro-
duce a multiple leaders. This isn’t
good as it weakens the growth from
that point on. So, in a given year, he
only prunes one side.
He has found that most redwood
trees grow too tall and too fast for the
diameter of the trunk. Trees 5 inches
or less in diameter can just bend over
into a “U” from the excess upper can-
opy weight of a snow or ice load. But
they don’t snap. Rod has pulled some
back upright and tried to stabilize
them but it isn’t easy and he doesn’t
recommend it. But the remarkable
redwood will send up a new leader at
the top of the “U” and the tree will
continue and thrive as if nothing hap-
pened. There will just be this odd,
U-shaped buttress on the tree that will
eventually die or be pruned.
Rod learned that deer and elk
don’t browse redwoods but they antler
rub them. They can kill a redwood two
inches or less in diameter above where
they rub, but redwoods, unlike most co-
nifers, can re-sprout and create a new
leader (“if the roots are alive, the tree is
alive”). He protects his seedlings with
wire cages until the tree trunks are 4
inches in diameter. After that, rubbing
won’t kill the tree.
Rod has seen swarms of squir-
rels of various types descend on his
trees, pulling off bark and, in some cases
eating the cambium layer. Sometimes
squirrels appear to be harvesting the
bark for nests. Small trees can be killed
but once they get to a certain age, the
bark-stripping doesn’t really hurt them.
It has been a great pleasure to get
to know Rod and watch the trees grow.
Besides redwoods his farm has different
species of conifer Christmas trees. His
native trees include Douglas fir, big leaf
maple, western red cedar, cascara, alder,
and serviceberry. But there are a number
of other trees. His English oaks (from
acorns carried back from England) pro-
duce prodigious quantities of acorns that
the jays and the squirrels are planting
everywhere. Same with the European
chestnut, a few of which were growing
on the farm when he bought it. Now
there are many more, planted by wild-
life, cared for by Rod and Sandy. The
tree farm has approximately 100 differ-
ent conifer and deciduous trees in total.
This is real forest diversity. One year his
farm was the site for the Oregon Truffle
Society’s annual fall truffle hunt. It had
been a warm moist fall and the truffles
were abundant among all the different
species that grow there. They returned
several years later, in a dry fall, and
few truffles were found. Nature, as Rod
knows, bats last.
If you are interested in planting
redwoods on your land, let me (Exten-
sion office number – (503) 397-3462)
know. If there is enough interest, it might
be possible to get Rod to talk about them
in more detail. This column only touches
the surface of what he knows.
Food Safety or Food Preservation
Questions? OSU Extension Service
Has Answers.
Are you planning to preserve
food from your garden or purchased
from a farm? If so, call or visit the OSU
VERNONIA
C H I RO P R AC T I C C L I N I C, I NC.
VernoniaChiro.com
Joseph Dombek, DC
Booster Club
Extension Service office before you start
canning, freezing, or drying. Costly
and potentially harmful mistakes can be
made by using outdated canning recipes
and instructions. We can also test the ac-
curacy of your pressure gauge. You can
drop off your canner lid with gauge and
pick it up later in the day. Sometimes,
it might be possible to have it tested on
the spot. An inaccurate gauge can lead
to canning at a lower than recommend-
ed pressure which could lead to serious
food poisoning concerns.
You can find free publications at
the Columbia County Extension office
located at 505 N. Columbia River High-
way in St. Helens (across from the Lega-
cy Clinic). If you have questions, phone
the office at (503) 397-3462. There is
a statewide Extension food preserva-
tion hotline that you can reach Monday
through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
at 1-800-354-7319. You can download
for free all our food preservation pub-
lications at http://extension.oregonstate.
edu/fch/food-preservation. An addition-
al great resource is the National Center
for home Food Preservation at http://
www.uga.edu/nchfp/.
Free newsletter (what a deal!)
The Oregon State University
Extension office in Columbia County
publishes a monthly newsletter on gar-
dening and farming topics (called Coun-
try Living) written/edited by yours truly.
All you need to do is ask for it and it
will be mailed or emailed to you. Call
(503) 397-3462 to be put on the list. Al-
ternatively, you can find it on the web at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/colum-
bia/ and click on newsletters.
Take excess produce to the food bank,
senior centers, or community meals
programs. Cash donations to buy food
are also greatly appreciated.
The Extension Service offers its pro-
grams and materials equally to all
people.
Contact information for the Extension
office
Oregon State University
Extension Service – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway (across
from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
(503) 397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
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