Yellow Pines

[Jebpetto]

I have several pine trees (Scotch I think) and the needles are turning yellow. This happened last year to a couple of trees and this spring the needles turned brown and fell off. The tree is not dead and it had new green growth on the ends of the branches, and is still green. Now several others are doing it. I have fertilized these with tree spikes and added some lime to the groung around the trees. I did this about a month ago and it has not seemed to help. The trees are about 4 to 5 feet tall and this is the third summer for them in the ground. I do water these trees. Any suggestions?

I can post a picture if needed.

Jebpetto

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[underwor]

All the needles fell off, or just those back inside a ways?

 

[Tree Wizard]

A picture would be good. A close up of the needles would be great. Being a pine - they are not going to like being limed.

 

[Jebpetto]

#1 8-31-05
#2 8-31-05
#3 8-31-05
#4 6-30-05
#5 6-30-05
Pictures taken on these dates. Trees 2 & 5 are same tree. Hope these help. I'm new to this so hope the pics come through.

 

[Tree Wizard]

Those pine sure look like white pine. They like a more acidic soil and liming it will make it more basic. White pine get chlorotic (yellow needles) very easily in basic soils. Plus they are relatively new transplants - so there is that stress also. The pics look like more yellowing on interior needles. White pine will shed interior needles every couple of years - when under stress, young white pine will do it annually.

 

[helpmytrees]

I agree they look like white pine, which seem to do very poor as young trees in the midwest. Check to see if the bunches of needles (fascicles) are 5 needles. This would Verify that it is a white pine, where Austrian and Scots have only 2-3 needles per fascicle.

Even with pH or any soil test there is likely little that can be done to adjust the pH level of all of the growing medium it is in. It would however be a useful tool to determine the problem more accurately. Annual root fertilization with a complete fertilizer (ex. 18-6-6)would be beneficial, and they have been in the ground long enough for them to be "adapting" to the soil.

It does seem certain though that we are not dealing with insects or pathogenic activity.

 

[helpmytrees]

Oh yeah, as the Tree Wizard said though, they do prefer more acidic soil so a fertilizer for acid loving trees and shrubs may be in line. I like a product called HollyTone. It is all organic and has an analysis of 4-6-4. Much lower than a most liquid fertilizers which may actually be better (less nitrogen).

 

[Jebpetto]

I bought a home soil tester and tested the soil. Here are the results. Soil taken from under the tree near the trunk tested N-depleted, K-adequate, P-surplus, and Ph-6.5 slightly acid. Another test between the trees resulted in N-depleted, K-adequate, P-adequate, and the Ph was 6.0 acid.
I receive these trees for free and I they seem to grow good for 2-3 years and then die. I never noticed them turning yellow until last year. They seem to get about this big and die. I did buy a blus spruce to replaced the one that died last year and was wondering if any more die would a different kind be better to plant?