Pine Trees

[sassafraspete]

Blue spruce are nice to look at. A guy local in our area told me to use dish washing soap in my water when transplanting trees. (he has transplanted trees here for years). Not sure what that does, but he swears by it.

As for your spruce.... maybe mulch it good and do a watering regiment using something like miracle grow formula made for acid loving plants...eg once a week maybe for awhile. Use a dispenser on the end of your hose. Don't know how close the tree is to a water hose.

Ok, don't know why I am trying to give advice.... I planted some spruce seedlings a few yrs back, and out of 100, the 10 I have left are just now starting to grow good. OK, take what I suggest with a grain of salt.....

sassafraspete

 

[thcri]

The fertilizer spikes that I get are for spruce. They have the high acid content. The box says for Blue Spruce unless you are still telling me the spikes are no good. I am not buying the regular spikes. I have mulch around them all including the one that looks like it is dieing. So I am going to water the living daylights out of it and see if that helps as we have gone sometime without a good rain. It's just funny this one does the new growth thing and the new growth dies. The rest of them are growing pretty good for being transplanted trees.

murph

 

[beenthere]

I would water them regularly, but not "water the living daylights' out of them. I wouldn't bother with more fertilizer until the tree shows signs that it is growing better.

I assume that you still have the tree staked, so that the wind cannot blow it around. If the wind can move the tree, then the dirtball also moves and the real fine hair roots trying to get established just break off. These hair roots get bigger and longer and eventually will hold the tree.

I like the spruce and pine, especially the white pine as it has a finer needle than the red and southern pines. Also, they are green in the winter. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[meledward23]

The dish washing soap I imagine is used a an anti-transpiration and is more applicable to moving deciduous trees in the summer. Trees pull moisture through their entire body and allow it to escape out of their stomates on the under side of the leaf. When being moved if they expell more water than they have or, if they transpire at a rate faster than they are capable of (heat, wind, etc) then the link is broken (the chain of water molecules) and cells collapse causing serious damage and many times the death of the tree.

Your Blue Spruce certainly seem a mystery on why they push new growth and then die back. But I know I have read something on this over the years. I will see what I can find.

BTW, in as a general rule here in the South in hard clay soils (Pinus Virginiana and P. Taeda) Loblolly and Virginia Pines will 9 times out of ten will perform better the smaller they are planted. Quite often we can plant one gallon, 7 gallon and 10ft. B&B Pines on a jobsite and in 5-10 years later the one gallon is often the biggest and healthiest. My point, I would consider finding some small seedlings and planting them as a back drop row to your existing pines. Just a thought.

 

[meledward23]

http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/diseases/series600/rpd625/

This is a link to Sphaeropsis blight. It mainly affects different pines and older pines than yours, however it was the only thing I have found so far.

"The most noticeable symptom of Sphaeropsis blight is a browning, stunting, and twisting of the new shoots and needle growth (the candles) (Figure 1). Usually the lower branches of the tree are the first and most seriously affected, and sometimes infection is concentrated over a small area or on one side of a tree."

 

[arthr31]

thanks for that link. I have several pines which are suffering from that blight, so i think. poor trees!!

 

[arthr31]

murph, i talked w/ some arborist pals today about this... so.. a couple / few things: a) did you test the soil before using the fertilizer spikes? One friend (forestry arborist) said that the spikes could cause "hot" spots in the soil where it would become too acidic. But, he said, with adequate watering this would not be much of an issue. b) another friend said (park arborist) said that too much mulch, too high on the tree trunk will cause both growth and foliage problems on the tree. Both agreed that light could be an issue. For example many years ago we worked on planting many doug firs that were about 2' tall. These firs were grown in a field with full sun. We transplanted to areas which were mostly shade. Only one out of 12 made it!! EEK. What were your trees light conditions before and after?

We also talked about watering. If roots are burned, over watering may cause rot thereby increasing disease and further die-off. General recommendations included a few deep waterings with enough time to dry out (couple of days to a day), mulch away from the trunk, but form a deep ring around the tree, test the soil, and stake/support the mast of the tree if heavy winds prevail....

the multiple grow and die-back within a season is a recall from school-- we planted ash trees and would purposefully destroy tendrils to see what path the tree would take. It would usually have a number of re-growths before giving up or running out of energy for the season.. this is what you are probably seeing with the growth and die-back on your trees.

Lastly, maybe give the trees about a month of TLC thru august and then let nature run its course. If the trees are OK thru aug, they'll probably make it.

Good luck, we all need more beautiful trees! I hpe this give some additional advice or food for thought at least... -art

ps, i just remembered something pretty important for the future of transplanting trees--- it is very beneficial to prune the roots a year before transplanting. to root prune you'd walk around the tree about a few feet from the trunk and cut down with a flat spade. when you do this, you break some roots which then re-grow closer to the trunk. when you replant/transplant the tree a year later, it's root system is more robust closer to the trunk, therefore losing less vigor in being able to grown. it is possible with your trees that some left behind major root systems that it was counting on for survival...

I know that the doug firs and other evergreens send LONG shallow roots out, if they lose these, they can be comprimised... bye for now. -art /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif