Nope, it's not the pine bark beetle, because this seems to be a process of about 3 weeks, where the needles just start dying very slowly, always the lower branches first. No real scarring on the branches, just dead needles. Anybody have an opinion?
Could be normal needle cast. Pine needles only live for about 3 years, then they die, fall off, and are replaced. They typically die the furtherest from the branch tip or bud as these are the oldest needles on a branch.
Well, I hope you're correc, but these pines are 25 years old and only one of them is doing this. We have had pine bark beetles in the past, though (although I have read that white pines are not affected by them) which only the pheremone packets manage to keep in check.
You very well might have something worse.
Are the trees in a tight spacing, lack of sun light, lack of moisture etc.?
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/dead-needles-lower-branches-pine-trees-66436.html
Hey Ron, that's a great site. thanks. I read a lot of the articles, but I think your allusion to overcrowding may be the answer. The trees were planted 10 feet apart----25 years ago. Now they're 24" diameter, with huge lower banches that perhaps cannot compete any more....
Matsucoccus scale and Caliciopsis pinea canker is the info we got back from a pathologist about white pines with the same symptoms.
Curdog, did the pathologist recommend any specific treatment?
The last email I received said that they were taking cultures to verify the disease /diseases that were affecting the trees. I haven't heard back yet. But I think that this is something that has popped up in a few of the counties that border Tennessee in western North Carolina. I haven't noticed any in my area of the foothills, but we don't have the extent of white pine that is found further west. I'll pass along anything I find out.
Quote from: wolf nemeth on July 27, 2016, 03:15:45 PM
Hey Ron, that's a great site. thanks. I read a lot of the articles, but I think your allusion to overcrowding may be the answer. The trees were planted 10 feet apart----25 years ago. Now they're 24" diameter, with huge lower banches that perhaps cannot compete any more....
In my 30 yr old pine plantation in SW Ontario with trees at 10 - 12' spacing ALL but those on the outer rows have no live branches for 10 to 20' up due to lack of light, this is normal in such plantations (unless they have been thinned) so far as I can tell. So long as the tops are green things should be fine!
Losing needles in early fall, often fakes people out, sometimes foresters.
Can you show us some photos?