Here is the tree from a distance, it looks fairly healthy from this side with new growth sprouting at the tips.

This is what I shook out of the branches today. There is a bug to the right of the middle, is that a spider mite?

google told me.. its a z7 max plant...

you are z8 ... if thats what that 8 means next to your name .... where are you???

plus it was an incredibly large transplant ...

i cant tell if it looks yellowish.. or thats the camera ... otherwise.. it doesnt look all that bad ...

no conifer holds its needles forever ... some fall every year... and on a huge transplant.. its isnt unusual for it to be the lower ones ...

do you see many of them down your way ???

in the future.. try ta ask.. BEFORE you spray ... i dont understand how you can have something that claims to be an all season DORMANT spray ... the plant is either dormant.. or its not ...

if the large transplant is stressed.. which it could be for up to 3 years.. coating it in oil .. even hort oil.. MIGHT just be another stress ...

explain how you are watering it.. and why it isnt properly mulched... and how grass is removed from under it ... you arent weedwhipping the lower branches.. every now and then??? obviously not prior to the pic... lol ..

ken

Hello Ken, thanks for your response.

I live in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, WA, about a mile or so from the coast. Weather has been very dry past three weeks or so, had a wet Fall & a rainy virtually snow free mild Winter. A trait of this particular area in Agnew is a prevailing West wind which can get severe.

Yes it was a huge transplant, my back can testify that.

The tree looks otherwise healthy & green except for West side of tree mid to lower branches. I'll post a couple more close ups after work today.

Norway Spruce isn't native to WA State, though they are not 'uncommon' in peoples yards.

I did ask my local nursery 'expert' (huge cough) about this tree, he stated I must spray the branches with water frequently. Rightly or wrongly he also stated that they needed an insecticide spray annually as they were prone to spider mites, which I did not do as it looked a very healthy tree. The only attention I gave it was the horticultural oil two days ago, after I read on various google responses. I then discovered this forum Ken :-)

Head bowed in shame, I haven't mulched the tree yet, we were discussing getting mulch in only yesterday. I was very careful with the transplant, learned from my mistakes there. I water it with a hosepipe weekly if it is dry, spraying the branches as advised, mainly watering the base. Don't water it if the prevailing constant rain drives me indoors.

Yes Ken :-( I need to weed LOL, will do that today on that tree. Don't weed whack around trees. I'll try to post a better picture of what is going on after work.

Maybe it is still stress or the prevailing coastal Westerly wind causing stress on that west side?

Thanks :-)

Jeff.

i am glad you didnt read anything into my words.. apparently i should have more coffee before i type early in teh morning ... ... it sounds b*tchy.. and i didnt mean such ...

listen to me ... as to your back ... a 3 footer.. will transport easier.. move from vehicle to hole easier .. plant easier.. get established easier.. and in doing so.. probably outgrow the large transplant.. inside of a decade ..

huge transplants.. short of paying men with big tools .. simply arent worth it ...

all it leads to.. is you worrying about them for many years ...

take something like a hockey stick [cricket???] ... or 1 x 2 ... put into trunk ... and sweep the long grass out of the plant.. and then spray it with round up [i can explain that if you wish] .. extending out about 2 feet past the bottom branches.. and then add at least 2/3 filled with a good mulch ... leave a dead zone between lawn and mulch ...

your lawn wasnt sprayed by a lawn service... was it???

i hope some of the PNWers chime in ...

ken

PS: its Picea abies ... no quotes around the common name norway spruce ....

LOL Ken...

Thanks for not being Picea abies 'B1tchy' this time LMAO. You were fine :-) I've just returned back from work and I definitely am CRANKY! Had to deal with retail customers all day along with 'bodgit incorporated' co-workers, both who lacked in the 'common sense' department. Just call me 'Grumpy' especially having had no lunch too. Moan moan moan...

Yep, I hear you on the tree size, HOWEVER, I have to deal with my 'war office' who wanted something large to block off our neighbors. I pick my battles, her wish was my command LOL. My back eventually recovered, my wallet is still recovering. Plus we both might have 'kicked the bucket' in a decade.

Though I have taken to heart your advice already Ken (grin), most of the conifers that I am planting like a madman as I can afford them are 3 feet tall or less. Drooling over Conifer Kingdom's website, wishing I had a fat wallet. Ahhh.. cricket, now there is a real game that I thought Americans never had heard of. So.. when you say 'trunk' do you mean 'boot'? (grin).

Nope, lawn has never been sprayed, if I did the millions of dandelions would die & there would be no lawn left LOL. The only treatment I have made to the lawn is Ferrous Sulphate, nope.. not to get rid of moss... but I'm at war with moles. Long story, in my past I was a Pest Control branch manager, well these moles have me beat... Iron apparently taints the taste of the bugs, probably murders the worms... but the moles allegedly eventually leave because they hate the taste of the grubs tainted with iron and follow my 'eviction notice' to the neighbors yard. Just trying anything before I purchase a Smith & Wesson 500.

Call me dumb, but we drink our well water and I'm hesitant to use glyphosate for weeds or 2-4D for those dandelions. Sigh. I may break a rule if you convince me! I'm sure my paranoia on poisoning our water supply is unfounded.

The mulch I will do, leaving a dead zone as you suggest, will get a truck load this weekend and buy a fence to block the neighbors instead of buying big trees! Will keep you posted on the Norway Spruce.

Thanks Ken for your reply.

Jeff.

Jeff, I am no expert, but my guess is simply that being a transplant, and a large one at that, it's root system was somewhat 'compromised' i.e. if it was B&B it had roots cut and torn from the balling process, and even if it was from a pot, there is a very good chance that there were some tangling roots that were damaged by the untangling and planting process. Add into that a lot of westerly winds, it didn't have an established enough root system to keep all of its needles hydrated, particularly on the windy side.

I cannot identify if the bug in your pic is indeed a spider mite or not, I wouldn't mind knowing myself, but from what I have read, if there are spider mites, periodic strong blasting from a water hose will knock them off and keep them under control.

From your second pic, it looks like I can see a fair bit of new growth at the tips. Keep up your good care, and I'm sure your tree will be fine.

Spider mites are virtually microscopic - they would show up as tiny reddish-brown dots on the white paper. And while they can pester spruces, they are not all that common at this time of year in the PNW. It is simply too darn humid/wet for them to be very prolific - they prefer hot and dry. And especially this year, as May is setting up to be another record breaker for rainfall after 3 consecutive months of similar. No drought here!!

I think the settling of a large transplant has much to do with the appearance but we have also experienced one of the strangest winters and springs I can remember......and I've lived here all my life. Plants which are normally no-brainers in terms of hardiness and reliability have struggled mightily. As long as drainage - particularly in winter - is good in that spot and you provide sufficient water when needed, it should recover and settle in well. We sell a heck of a lot of Norway spruce here at the nursery :-))

@ Gardens1:

Yes, you are probably right, I'm worrying about nothing, though that wind we have here can be lethal. I planted about 15 Gold Cone Junipers when I moved here two years ago and everyone died in the course of one day after being planted 6 months on a very hot and windy day, even though I watered profusely.

I have learned a lot since then about transplanting and tend not to buy trees in concrete blocks of clay that have been sitting on hot asphalt in Home 'Desperate' for an unknown period even if they are cheap. That and I always research the species before I buy & stick to reputable nurseries. I've also lost a Cryptomeria Japonica 'Elegans', a Huon Pine and a Koster's False Cypress all for differing reasons, I am the murderer of trees!

Thank you for your positive comments 'Gardens1' :-) I will hopefully post pictures of a beautifully healthy Norway Spruce in a couple of years time.

Jeff

@ gardengal48

Thank you for putting my mind at rest about spider mites. I can confirm the strange weather we've been experiencing here in the PNW, even more so here in the Sequim 'rain shadow'. We have had but a mere sprinkle of rain here during May and my lawn is beginning to brown in places.

Where is your Nursery located gardengal?

Luckily the soil here is great, silty with good drainage and on the site of an old Christmas Tree farm, very fertile and NO STONES yeah!!

I'm glad there are many others buying Norway Spruces up here & I am not alone. Yes, you are right, it's still settling in from being transplanted, that and the drying wind.

Thank you for your advice Gardengal. If your nursery is not too far away I'd love to say hi and buy a tree or three from you.

Jeff

While I think the folks above have offered good and pertinent info, I muse, mostly to myself, on the seeming paradox of a tree like N. spruce being planted in the PNW. It 'looks' like it belongs there with its resemblance to so many of your native conifers, but is in fact adapted to a much colder climate. Also seems to take most everything weather-wise in stride here further east, although this very day I'm heading up to my plantation, which features thousands of these things, as they were apparently burned a little by our exceptional cold, windy winter up here. But here in the town I live in, they're budding out all over the place, apparently coming through just fine.

So what's the point of all this rambling? I guess if gardengal sells lots of them in the nursery in that part of the country, they must do ok. I do think it looks spider-mitish to me, but you're already doing all the right things if that is in fact the case.

+oM

LOL!! If they don't thrive here, someone should be telling all those scores of wholesale growers down there in Oregon! To be honest, not all spruces do grow well in our climate but Norway and Serbian spruce do and there is also both considerable overlap in their native ranges. Yes, we tend to be somewhat mild in winter but the other growing requirements appear to be adequately addressed.

Jeff, the nursery is in Poulsbo if you feel like a drive south. And it's really the only one of any size in the area so no need to name names :-) Want to avoid any accusations of business promotion, you know. If you need more detailed info, contact me by email.

Gardengal, I don't have the info in front of me, but I was once surprised to learn-right here on this forum, probably from resin-that the state NS champ in WA is "only" something like 90 feet tall. I'd have expected much taller. Heck, we have 90 footers around here. But I believe you. After all, what plants aren't grown in the Portland OR and similar areas of the W coast?

+oM