It may be fine, sequoias have relatively shallow roots.
Sequoias absolutely do have deep roots, I promise. They aren’t particularly deeper than other species, part from them being utterly massive and requiring a similarly large, and yes, deep, root system to keep them from literally falling over. I’ve toured industrial tissue culture facilities which raise hundreds of thousands to millions of redwoods and sequoias per year. They use the deep cone-tainer pots, specifically and intentionally to allow for deeper rooting.
They don’t get there water from tap roots like other trees.
They only root to 12 to 14 feet deep even at maturity.
The popular “shallow root” thing is mostly coming from outreach type pages that compress this into: roots ~14 ft deep and 60–80 ft out laterally. That’s “shallow” relative to a 100-meter tree, but in absolute terms it’s a very large, deep root plate compared to most trees. And 14 feet isn’t even particularly big. I’ve stood in fallen over old growth root clumps at were easily 20.
Its like saying a train has a small engine compared to a geo metro, because of the size of the engine relative to the vehicle.
Sequoias absolutely do have deep roots, I promise. They aren’t particularly deeper than other species, part from them being utterly massive and requiring a similarly large, and yes, deep, root system to keep them from literally falling over. I’ve toured industrial tissue culture facilities which raise hundreds of thousands to millions of redwoods and sequoias per year. They use the deep cone-tainer pots, specifically and intentionally to allow for deeper rooting.
Are you referring to the Sillets paper a couple years ago making the claim that redwoods do get some water from condensation on their leaves?
I love scientific clap backs, cracks me up every time.
Maybe not the most trusted ource but where I got it from https://www.giant-sequoia.com/faqs/giant-sequoia-questions/:
The popular “shallow root” thing is mostly coming from outreach type pages that compress this into: roots ~14 ft deep and 60–80 ft out laterally. That’s “shallow” relative to a 100-meter tree, but in absolute terms it’s a very large, deep root plate compared to most trees. And 14 feet isn’t even particularly big. I’ve stood in fallen over old growth root clumps at were easily 20.
Its like saying a train has a small engine compared to a geo metro, because of the size of the engine relative to the vehicle.