i know you have the techno.. why no pic???

what ever you do... do not pull it all at once ...ease it up ... retie it once a week ... but not if it gets too cold ...

and be done.. by the time the buds start extending in spring ...

i am a little baffled by it all.. if you rule out watering and bugs ... unless it was a poor dig... was it potted.. ball burlap... what could have caused it all???

usually only happens to hundred dollar specimens.. lol ...

ken

First of all, it was not balled and burlapped or potted...the bad one was just a ball of dirt with roots sticking out. It was a 7 footer and cost me about 80 bucks. I didn't know better at the time. NEVER again. The other was balled and burlapped and doing muuuuch better but I still want to ensure a good leader for this spring.

Yes, I am kicking myself in the ass for wasting money on it when I could have planted smaller and cheaper with less stress on the plant. But I didn't learn that lesson until I really started coming on here! Ken is my conifer sensei.

Will post a pick of the worse of the two tomorrow at some point. But for now, imagine a 7 foot white pine in which the top foot is brown/shocked except for one or two branches that stayed healthy and have buds on the end.

The tree from a few feet away...a mixture of dead limbs and fall needle drop. You'll see one or two good ones at the top.

And here you see the old, dead leader on the left which I trimmed down a bit, and the one I want to prop up to become the new leader on the right.

Any advice you guys can give would be greatly appreciated!

That's odd...why won't this post go to the top? I posted the pics two days ago But it keeps going down the list....

Would greatly appreciate some opinions on how to solve this!

patience young grasshopper ...

i use 100% cotton old fashioned clothes line.. and it isnt easy to find .... cotton will rot off.. if you forget about it.. for a decade or two ... it will not if its core is plastic ...

i like it.. because i can untie and retie it for years to come ...

last pic above... take that shoot at 1 oclock... and cut the distance to the dead part by half ...

in spring.. tighten it more ...

try removing it next fall ... or leave it there.. like i do.. for a decade or two ... lol ...

in spring.. any of the brown.. that does not bud out.. can be pruned out... it will probably make some holes... but the tree will fill it in.. within a year or two ... the death pattern is weird ...

pine is pretty bendy ... so you could probably go all the way.. but i am teaching you to do it a bit slower ... as that lesson will work better on other non-bendy conifers ..

if you did absolutely nothing.. the tree will releader on its own..

also.. by next fall ... we might have to do some other selective pruning... should the tree throw up its own choice for a leader ....

ken

For better viewing.

"First of all, it was not balled and bur-lapped or potted...the bad one was just a ball of dirt with roots sticking out".

Are the buds that are left viable? This tree is under severe stress. There is a 50/50 chance it will not recover. I am betting it will not. You will know next Spring.

A few pointers. If you buy big, most always they are B&B. If so make sure the root ball is intact, not broken. Always buy in early Spring when they are fresh dug and plant immediately. Pass over the end of the season plants that have set around all Summer. Most of them are dead even though they show green, unless up potted during growing. season.

Did you save your receipt? If so dig up and return it for credit and plant a new one next Spring.

Dave

{{gwi:847353}}

{{!gwi}}

This post was edited by Davesconifers on Thu, Nov 6, 14 at 6:12

Warranty is over...no chance. I did buy it the day after they received the shipment last spring, as you suggested, in early spring. But root ball was no b and b'ed. Buds on green growth seem good to go....but there's a lot of dead growth, as you can see. Hoping it doesn't look this gross forever....

My plan is to wait until spring and see how it does. If it does die, I don't have to buy white pines anymore. My dads new place in NY has a ton of natural seedlings and young ones under 7 ft in the forest I can dig up and transplant. I'd rather do that anyway...it won't be sheered to look like a Christmas tree by the grower.

Keeping my fingers crossed....but also not really worried about it....

Here's another pic of the top growth. You can see why I chose that particular branch to be the new leader.

Not to beat a dead horse-and Johnniferous, I know you now know some or all of this-but white pines grow FAST. Little itty-bitty seedlings we stuck in the ground two springs back, never watered, never cultivated around/sprayed around/mulched around-in other words, no care whatsoever, are now four feet tall. I'd speculate that by this time next year, many of them will be taller than I am. So yes, do start small with this kind of thing.

Then there's the stubborn belief that only we monkeys can get trees to "grow right". Pine-family members are very good at producing their own new leaders when necessary. BTW, have you ruled out such leader-killers as pine shoot tip moth larvae, etc? Granted, your tree in question seems to have more trouble going on than just a dead leader, but those insect problems are commonplace.

+oM

first.. as we say.. it will releader.. but this is a great place to learn how to doi it yourself ...

tom notes how fast they grow ... but they wont look like yours ... as yorus was trimmed to look like an xmas tree.. just FYI.. not that it has any bearing here ...

live and learn.. and boy are you learning on this one...

ken

Tom - Thanks for the info. Yes, I have ruled out tip moth, weevil, blister rust etc. No exit holes, signs of sickness etc.

I know it's being caused by that crap rootball that got beat up on it's way from the store to my place...I even mentioned it when we were putting it in, but my landscaper friend assured me it was fine. BS. Now I know better.

Speaking of growth, trimming, sheering etc....I want to let these grow naturally and plan to never trim them. Will they look weird? Like will the top have lots of leader with distant branches and the bottom will be full like it is now? Or will that go away/adjust with time?

Given enough time, the formerly-sheared plant will take on a more normal, cascading conifer look. You are right to question how long this will take and whether or not the bottom will eventually match the "top", er....growth that hasn't happened yet. I think they will.

One of my peeves-little sheared spruce and pine at the garden center, exhibiting some idealized version of how conifers are supposed to look, as promulgated by someone who apparently never once noticed the innate beauty of the natural growth form. But even these goofy-looking things eventually take on a more normal appearance.

+oM