Blue Spruce browning, dropping interior needles..
 

Hi..

We just (Summertime) planted 7 beautiful, 12' Colorado Blue Spruce as
landscape trees at our home.

I noticed a few days ago that many of the interior needles on each of
the trees are various shades of yellow and brown. Some of the brown
ones feel 'crispy' and fall off at the touch, which would lead me to
think they did not get enough water.

We'd been watering regularly after they were planted (couple of
times/week, about 30 minute trickle on each tree), but had some
October rains lately. The garden bed soil outside of the perimiter of
the trees felt overly damp a couple of weeks ago, so we pulled back on
the watering a bit - maybe haven't hose watered in a few weeks. Our
landscaper did tell my wife just about then that we could stop
watering pretty much altogether and rely on what the rain provided as
they would be entering their "dormant" phase for the winter. Now I am
wondering if a couple of weeks of only getting rain was enough to dry
these out to the point that the interior needles are dying off
rapidly?

Searching google, I found that a symptom of drought is that the trees
yellow from the TOP, and from the outside in. This is not what's
happening to these - they are yellowing from the inside out - and
mostly not at the top at all (that I can tell - but, they are 12-14'
off the ground!). The top outermost needles are green, as are the
outermost needles on the rest of the tree surface. (No yellowing on
the needle exterior growth from this year).

I also found an article that says Evergreens drop some interior
needles at this time of year, and that stress adds to the amount
dropped.

I assume this is what's happening? As the trees just got planted this
summer, I assume they are extremely stressed - and are dropping even
more than normal.

We live in Michigan (N of Detroit by 25-30 miles). Sorry I don't know
what zone that is. Soil is clay on one side of the house, sand on the
other (the trees are on both sides - 3 on the W side, 4 on the East).

Would appreciate any and all suggestions/help. We do have the
landscaper coming out this week to look, but are really worried about
these.

Thanks -

Jim

Blue Spruce browning, dropping interior needles..
 

your trees are fine, they are shedding thier inner most needles like many
evergreens do in the fall. Your landscaper gave you horrible advice, as you
should keep watering them into november, especially the first year.

Toad

Blue Spruce browning, dropping interior needles..
 

Blue Spruce browning, dropping interior needles..
 

This is completly normal. My spruce do this every fall too.

Blue Spruce browning, dropping interior needles..
 

"paslaz" wrote in message
...
Hi..

We just (Summertime) planted 7 beautiful, 12' Colorado Blue Spruce as
landscape trees at our home.

I noticed a few days ago that many of the interior needles on each of
the trees are various shades of yellow and brown. Some of the brown
ones feel 'crispy' and fall off at the touch, which would lead me to
think they did not get enough water.

While your trees may be normal, you should read about spruce needle cast
disease. I lost one to this in the spring and another is looking bad.
http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-163.html

Blue Spruce browning, dropping interior needles..
 

Thanks, everyone! Great info and I'm glad to hear this is "normal".

Jim

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 20:29:04 GMT, "Vox Humana"
wrote:


"paslaz" wrote in message
.. .
Hi..

We just (Summertime) planted 7 beautiful, 12' Colorado Blue Spruce as
landscape trees at our home.

I noticed a few days ago that many of the interior needles on each of
the trees are various shades of yellow and brown. Some of the brown
ones feel 'crispy' and fall off at the touch, which would lead me to
think they did not get enough water.

While your trees may be normal, you should read about spruce needle cast
disease. I lost one to this in the spring and another is looking bad.
http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-163.html