Do white pines get old & brittle???

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Sounds like a stupid question, but 43 years ago I planted 100 white pine seedlings. You could hold all in one hand...pencil sized and I planted with a dibble bar. Now they average about 18"-24" across and 40ft tall. The problem is almost every day there are branches that look healthy but snapped off, anywhere from 1/2" to 4" diameter.
After snow & ice I hauled 5 heaping truckload off, now it averages a wheelbarrow a day. Pictured are a few and I used a small chipper.
Is this because they're old?

 

[mllud]

I planted about 150 35 years ago. Mine are larger but location/climate may be why.
Do you have any good size critters that could be climbing for the pinecones.
I don't think they get brittle. Mine had limbs weighed down with snow sagging really bad but held on. Are you in drought?
If not wind or snow I would think an animal may be the cause.
We don't have many bears in Mo. but I think they eat pinecones.
If the broken are limbs are low, it could be deer standing on their hind legs pulling them down. Look for signs of something eating the needles. Deer havent bothered mine much but around here they have plenty to graze on.
Limbs like that just don't crack and fall.

 

[rumwrks]

Most pines go through a fair bit of self pruning of the lower limbs as they get bigger and older. I wonder if that's what's happening here. Is it mostly lower branches that are breaking off? It's fairly common to prune them to 25' or so for forestry practice to minimize the amount of lower limb stubs in the wood.

I wouldn't expect the tree itself to have much trouble until it's at least 150-200yrs old unless they're unhealthy for some reason. Look around the trees for bug frass or holes or excessive sap seepage from bug wounds. If they're unhealthy they almost always get bugs.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

We're getting rain. Limbs broken may be anywhere top to bottom. There aren't any cones.

 

[Carl_NH]

I'm with Rumwrks - this is the natural growth and evolution of white pines. The lower limbs arent getting the sun and they die and fall off, We had many wihite pines over 80' and I trimmed the dead wood up to 40-50' but they keep shedding branches every winter.

Finally we cut them down and milled lumber, as they were getting too big and could fall and damage the buildings.

 

[jyoutz]

Sounds like a stupid question, but 43 years ago I planted 100 white pine seedlings. You could hold all in one hand...pencil sized and I planted with a dibble bar. Now they average about 18"-24" across and 40ft tall. The problem is almost every day there are branches that look healthy but snapped off, anywhere from 1/2" to 4" diameter.
After snow & ice I hauled 5 heaping truckload off, now it averages a wheelbarrow a day. Pictured are a few and I used a small chipper.
Is this because they're old?View attachment 3084091View attachment 3084092

No. White pines can live a couple hundred years. But the branch wood is a little more brittle than other pines. Sometimes a heavy wet snow or ice can break branches. But Carl and rumwrks are correct; all pines shed lower branches as they grow because they aren’t shade tolerant. This is why we see very old pines clear of branches on the lower bole. And why these pines were prized for cabinetry and molding in the past; because they have clear knot free wood on the lower log. But they are beautiful long lived trees unless they are infected with white pine blister rust. That disease kills branches or the entire tree if the infection is on the bole. Blister rust is very obvious with extremely swollen branch areas or on the trunk. The blisters pop open and the white /orange blisters release airborne spores. But your trees were just broken by snow/ice. I would just get a pole saw and prune off the lower limbs. Prune the lower 1/3 of the tree height, leaving 2/3 with live crown.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I'm aware of dead lower branches. I'm surprised what could snap a large healthy limb way up high. No wind or snow/ice. Last year it didn't happen. The highway department did cut limbs up to trunk up about 16ft or so which maybe caused stress (?).

 

[mllud]

Those were healthy green limbs. When that top limb broke it took a pull to tear/split it back like that. That second limb down broke from the trunk. It has that raised edge at the break.
Do you have Turkey Buzzards that may be roosting. They are pretty heavy.
other heavy birds maybe, owl, hawk or eagle.

I'm pretty familiar with white pine and even when those lower shaded limbs die they stay firm for a couple years. I lose a limb like that from wind on occasion.
We had 80 mph wind gusts Fridy and. I didn't lose any.

Do you have a wildlife camera?

 

[jyoutz]

Those were healthy green limbs. When that top limb broke it took a pull to tear/split it back like that. That second limb down broke from the trunk. It has that raised edge at the break.
Do you have Turkey Buzzards that may be roosting. They are pretty heavy.
other heavy birds maybe, owl, hawk or eagle.

I'm pretty familiar with white pine and even when those lower shaded limbs die they stay firm for a couple years. I lose a limb like that from wind on occasion.
We had 80 mph wind gusts Fridy and. I didn't lose any.

Do you have a wildlife camera?

Since, they were in the upper crown and there was no snow/ice/wind, it undoubtedly is some kind of animal damage. A 43 year old pine is still an adolescent.

 

[ruffdog]

I have several different evergreens on my land and YES, the White Pine are more likely to shed branches. They are also more likely to have severe damage due to storms. Our native Norway Spruce and White Spruce hardly ever lose branches...but they do too.