Fertilize spruce and pine trees

[marty]

I was back on my place today and was checking my pines and some spruce I planted. The blue spruce I planted has been in the ground for three years now and they don't seem to have grown very much at all. My questions is could I put some fertilizer on them and my pines like triple 12 or would it be a waste of time?.......thanks marty

[Ron Scott]

Marty, how many trees do you have? If a few maybe ok if you have a soil test and know what your soil may be lacking for good pine and spruce growth. Fertilizing in a the general forest zone is usually not very economical and worth while. There are other elements such as soil moisture, climate, aspect, frost conditions, etc that also affect annual tree growth. There has been a good lack of soil moisture the past couple years so the tree gowth will be slow, especially in the drier soils. The fertilizer will also attrack more deer to your trees and increase your deer problem. Best to let nature take its course and control the deer herd.

[Bill Johnson]

Marty,from my experience with planting spruce, I would say that it is not uncommon for them to "sit" for several years and appear not to be growing.
I believe what is actually happening is that the root systems are developing and spreading out, once this is finished them you'll start to see above ground results.
This is a process that we commonly call "check",
and seems to part of the natural cycle for spruce.

If you are intent on fertilizing, I'd check with some of the commercial Christmas tree growers and see what they use and try that on a test plot before applying it to the plantation as a whole.

Bill

[marty]

Ron I guess there's about 200 blue spruce that I was thinking about. The lack of rain sounds like that could be it. The last few years been drier than a popcorn fart. Bill sounds like that could be happening also. Maybe I'll leave them alone for a while and see if they start to grow a bit better. Thanks for all the info all......marty

[Ron Scott]

Yes, as Bill says, root adjustment takes place before much height growth is noticed. This is especially true on spruce. Its hard to see much height grow. As long as they are right side up and healthy green they should do ok. They need to adjust to their forest environment.