Pine Tree Questions

[jyoutz]

Rob, I'm a forester and am very familiar with pines. A couple of thoughts about pines:

1) They don't tolerate saturated soils and in natural stands, they only grow on well-drained soils.

2) Most pines survive damage to the live crown, providing that 1/3 of the total tree height remains in healthy green crown. Trees with lesser proportions of live crown can survive, but recover very slowly.

3) Pines can survive lots of severe events, if they were healthy prior to the event and the event is a one-time, short duration thing.

4) If the growing site consists of frequently-saturated clay soils, then it will never be in a good situation and will either die or grow poorly over the long-term.

 

[jyoutz]

Rob, I'm a forester and am very familiar with pines. A couple of thoughts about pines:

1) They don't tolerate saturated soils and in natural stands, they only grow on well-drained soils.

2) Most pines survive damage to the live crown, providing that 1/3 of the total tree height remains in healthy green crown. Trees with lesser proportions of live crown can survive, but recover very slowly.

3) Pines can survive lots of severe events, if they were healthy prior to the event and the event is a one-time, short duration thing.

4) If the growing site consists of frequently-saturated clay soils, then it will never be in a good situation and will either die or grow poorly over the long-term.

 

[Rob_H]

Thanks Jyoutz;

Given that this flood is the highest level and flow rate ever recorded for the Ipswich river, I don't think this will be a common event. It was about 14 feet over it's normal levels for May.

The tree has about 1/3 of the crown that is undamaged, and the new growth at the tips of the branches that were under water are still OK. Most of the rest of the needles are falling off.

I aerated the soil around the dripline last night as suggested here - is there anything else I can do to improve the chances of the tree recovering?

Thanks for the advice.

Rob H.

 

[Rob_H]

Thanks Jyoutz;

Given that this flood is the highest level and flow rate ever recorded for the Ipswich river, I don't think this will be a common event. It was about 14 feet over it's normal levels for May.

The tree has about 1/3 of the crown that is undamaged, and the new growth at the tips of the branches that were under water are still OK. Most of the rest of the needles are falling off.

I aerated the soil around the dripline last night as suggested here - is there anything else I can do to improve the chances of the tree recovering?

Thanks for the advice.

Rob H.