Pine Tree

[tigerbeer]

Hi everyone,

i have two pine trees that were moved from my old home to this new place. after about a month now, both the trees are turning brown. i'll take pictures tomorrow and post them here but anyone can give some indication to what common diseases there could be for pine trees in Thailand would be great information. i hope to save both the trees as they are quite mature and would hate to see them die. it has however been very hot here in Chiang Mai and not sure if thats a factor.

TB..

[tigerbeer]

Here are the pictures of the tree:

first image: could the tree have some disease? some gooeyy stuff comes out of it.

second image: mostly getting brown from bottom to upwards

third image: bottom part of tree.

anyone got any idea whats going on? I really would hate to see it die. also if anyone knows the species of pine this is, i could look it up on the internet about possible problems.

thanks all.

[sbk]

It looks like a Norfolk Island Pine to me. Do you see any signs of holes in the wood? saw dust? Could be beetles if so.

Also, it sounds like you dug them up and moved them? If you didn't get the complete rootball then it will be quite a shock to their systems and will take time to regrow (or if the rootball was insufficient then maybe not at all)

[xen]

It is an Araucaria cunninghamii or Norfolk Island pine.

The white goey stuff that is on the leaf is mealy bug. You deal with that either with noxious chemicals which i would avoid or spray with white oil or just cooking oil ( the oil will suffocate the mealy bug).

There are also a couple of other thing i would do is to remove those pieces of wood supports and stake it by putting three upright stakes and loosly tie it hession belting . It shows evidence of damage already from those stakes ( I really don't know why the Thais use those tree supports as they do far more damage than good. Where they have driven the nail into the trunk will be a future stress point and could fail in a storm.

Also it is planted too close to the building as these can be very large trees and nwill need more space than this.

Hope this is of some help.

[xen]

I would also agree with SBK about the rootball .That is very likely to cause transplant shock . Was the rootball allowed to dry out whilst being transplanted ?

There is always a period when the trees looks poorly as it establishes itself to its new envirionment.

Also i must correct myself - the new name for Norfolk Island pine is (Araucaria heterophylla).

I have just re-read your post again . The white goey white stuff , if it on the leaf ,is mealy bug but if it is on the trunk , Araucaria spp. also extrude a white latex from the trunk in an effort for the tree to repair itself and to prevent insect attack from the damage being caused by that "tree Stablization" attempt. Remove those stakes and nails and if the tree is not going to fall over then leave it unstaked . If it is still unstable (the rootball moves in the soil) then stake it as i posted on the previous post with three upright stakes ( the stakes should never touch the trunk) and loosley tied with hession ties or even an old shirt material. That tree has had a hard time so let the tree have movement to sway slightly which will promote strength in the trunk. Don't use wire or thin ties that will further damage the tree.

Best of luck with it .

[tigerbeer]

no there is no saw dust or anything like that. you guys are totally right. the rootball was indeed very small for that size of the tree when they transfered it. i paid quite a lot of money for it as well. sad really. xen, i would do that as mentioned and i hope that the tree can stand on its own. will not remove the stakes totally but just leave it loose as to not touch the trunks. definitely remove the nails as well.

THank you very much sbk and xen. khop khun maak maak.

TB..

[neverdie]

Just one 'other' thought for you.

A few months ago (5-6 months) I had a number of new plantings in the yard. At first everything seemed to be going okay & i was paying special attention to them because it has been so dry. I was putting extra water on them etc.

After perhaps 2-3 months I noticed a few of the plants and a couple of the older ones were dying off & rather rapidly, as well. Perplexed by this, I increased the watering & put both manure and mulch in the garden beds near these plants that were struggling. The struggled for a few more weeks before suddenly nearly of them all died rather quickly (perhaps going from ordinary status to dead within just 2 or 3 weeks.

I then started digging up these plants only to discover every single one of them had Termites (white ants) eating at the rootball of each plant. There was several different types of plants too, not just one type.

I can now assume that by increasing the moisture around these plants I probably drew the Termites to them. I am new to this area and was unaware there were LOADS AND LOADS of whiteants here. Strangely they seem to have targeted 50% of the new plantings but other plants surrounding them were unaffected.

Little buggas.