Eastern White Pine - Turning Brown

[lxskllr]

I have a white pine that's about 60 years old, and aside from occasional crowding and snow damage, it's appeared healthy. I've been seeing a lot of brown needles going all the way up the tree. Our spring has been pretty wet. Winter was warm, and from memory, maybe a little wetter than usual. Soil probably isn't ideal with a high clay content. Any ideas on what's wrong? Anything that can be done without chemicals? Maybe just wait if it was waterlogged? It would be a fun project taking it down, but I like the tree well enough, and would prefer it stayed.

 

[Nutball]

I had one die. I can't remember if it turned brown from top down or bottom up. It had regular sized branches break off one side from an ice storm at least 5 or so years before, and it died at the end of a very dry year, though all the other pines survived. Maybe it got weakened enough for borders to get in, and borders let in fungus, which can move quickly through pine wood and bore tunnels.

 

[flushcut]

Improve drainage. Pines like sandy loose well drained soil.
Possibly aeration, radial trenching back filled with compost/pea gravel/soil mix.

 

[Altissimus]

Okay , So , from the Greens ...opinion , with whole hillsides looking brown it probably isn't a water issue

 

[chris_girard]

Just noticed all the brown Pines today here in New Hampshire. I'm looking into the causes right now. I do know that last year was a very heavy Pine cone year and I have noticed in the past that after this happens, the next year in the spring a lot of the older needles turn brown and fall off, as the new ones come in. I really think that we are just seeing a natural cycle, but I am looking into it. Eastern White Pine is one of our cash, crop trees.

I will let you guys know what I find out. It is interesting that it seems to be happening all along the eastern States.

 

[chris_girard]

So it turns out to be needlecast fungi due to all the rain last season's rain, but as long as the trees are healthy there is nothing to be concerned about.

Here's more info from the last time that this happened.

 

[lxskllr]

Cool. I'm hoping it keeps going. Looks like I might lose some lower branches. It's a pretty ugly tree as far as form goes, but it's a tree, and makes everything green, so I like it.

 

[chris_girard]

Yup, I hear ya!

 

[lxskllr]

She's dead Jim!



Well, all but. Barring a miracle, it looks like a removal this winter. There's a sassafras sapling behind it that I guess will be it's replacement. Another option would be removing the ugly Norway spruce that's next to it and installing another dawn redwood between the stumps. But that doesn't help the visual block of my neighbor in the winter. Maybe just some ERC. Those are nice, easy, and cheap(free).

 

[flushcut]

Hemlocks are cool if you are thinking replacing.

 

[lxskllr]

Hemlock doesn't seem to do well around here. Woolly adelgid seems to be popular. I have a hemlock out front that's limping along, but it isn't healthy by any means, and it's been butchered by the line guys. I suspect that'll be a removal when sewer finally gets installed here. That's the likely route of the connection, or close enough anyway.

 

[BIGTWIG]

There is a lot of Dothistroma and Diplodia blight(s) in Montana depending on which side of the continental divide you are on. I am not sure if those diseases are common on the east coast.

 

[lxskllr]

Anyone have clever ideas for the spars assuming I remove them? I fired up a different browser, and watched a couple instagram vids here, and I liked the one with the builtin nesting boxes. This pine's a codom, and if I left 15'-20' standing, that would give a lot of room for a bird condo, or maybe something for bats. Anything I did would have to fairly simple. I could handle something like those nesting boxes, but I couldn't do anything too fancy.