"bruceh" wrote in message
...
Phisherman wrote:
On Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:39:10 GMT, bruceh wrote:

My father has a couple of old (Japanese?) pine trees, each
about 8 feet tall in which the needles are browning.
He says that he only waters the trees and has never used
any fertilizer.

Is there any fertilizer/additive that can help with
these trees?

TIA


Don't need to fertilize pine trees. They can be mulched but the mulch
should not touch the bark. There are acres of dead pine trees in the
hills of TN due to pine beetle destruction.

I have heard of the beetle problems as the forests here in
Southern California have been infected due to the droughts.
As I understand it, however, it's due to the lack of water
that the trees have weakened and could not naturally fight
off the beetles. My father does water the trees so I'm
thinking this is not the problem.

Water is an issue in making decisions based on tree biology wityh respect to
tree farming. So issues that need to be addressed for the health of trees
is that water during dry times be addressed by use of symplastless tree
trunks with soil cantact. This feature of the ecological stgaes of trees is
often admired in old growtrh forest. Cook State Park Forest in PA was
having a drought when pieces of soil wood in cubes about 1" square when
picked up and squezzed, produced a steady stream of water (coninfers White
Pine and Eastern Hemlocks). The water issue can be addressed in once
fertile forest or tree farming by leaving more soil-wood.
Some points:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...nce/water.html
I put a twist on it:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...tis/water.html


So if fertilizers are not required, a thought came to
my mind. If I remember the way the soil is around the
base, it may be a bit compacted. Could compacted soil
prevent the roots from getting enough water?

As well as oxygen for respiration.

BTW, he
doesn't mulch.

Mulching with composted wood and leaves would address some of those problems
while consideration of the value of the larger gradations of wood (cellulose
mostly) such as course woody debris would be wise.

Mulching suggestions:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/M/mulch.html

Two good articles on soil, wood, chestry and trees:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/RHIZO.html
and
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/CHEM.html


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Forester & Tree Expert
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.