not much info ..and a pic would sure help ..

usually.. the bark changing color.. is a sign of maturity ... of the tree.. and the bark ...

you dont tell us how big ... nor how it was moved [e.g. 16 foot tree with a one foot root ball] ... etc ...

i suggest you start with a pic ... may as well learn how.. what the heck else do we have to do in SE MI today ... with a foot of snow coming.. and temps predicted into the minus 20F... lol

bark is what i consider a dead material [by me anyway...lol] .... it should not really change color.. based on some insult to the tree ... so i am a bit mystified by the story ...

ken

Thanks for the quick response Ken.

Haha, I guess I left out a couple key points. The tree is roughly 6 years old. 1" in diameter at the base. Height is 5' and the root ball was about 1' in diameter.

And yes there was an insult to the tree. I accidently let a garden hose rub against the bark and it rubbed it to the hard wood. I sprayed fungicide on it in a weak solution to make sure it wouldn't get infected.

Also,

I can't believe how cold it's supposed to get down here! Lol. It's crazy. I'm from the Petoskey area and these temps weren't uncommon when I was growing up there. But in Detroit... lol... Oh well.

My first thought is that previously protected bark was exposed to the sun. If that is the case, probably nothing to worry over.

Ok. Sounds good. I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow morning. Thanks Ken.

One thing;s for dern sure....you aren't going to do anything about it right now! Way too cold to even think about such matters, lol.

White pines in places like MI and WI are pretty hard to kill. If I had to guess, within a few years, you'll be forgetting this issue ever even came up.

+oM

Lol, yeah I know. I get OCD...

Thanks for th encouragement, +oM!

Here's a pic of the trunk.

The foliage.

Here you can see the demarkation associated with the color change I was talking about.

Here, another close up. You can see where I rubbed the hose on the trunk.

really .. you went out there in single digit MI weather ????? ... lol

each whorl.. is one year leader growth ... so it is not uncommon ... for the bark to change color ... due to maturity .... over the years... whorl by whorl by whorl ...

i suspect either you just didnt notice it.. or the weather made it more apparent all of a sudden ...

i would not have moved a pine that size .... especially a strobus in MI ... they grow 2 to 3 feet per year... once well established.. it isnt worth the effort ...

per your first note.. that isnt transplant shock yellowing ... looks normal for the most part ...

the only question.. in my mind.. is whether you got enough root mass ... and can keep it properly watered for the next two years ... for it to replace its root mass ......

if you fail ... replace it with a 2 footer ... you can buy them from the MI soil conservation district for 2 bucks or so in april .... or go back to grandpa's ... a one foot root mass.. on a two foot tree.. would be brilliant .....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: for example washtenaw co sale info .... get on your counties mailing list now ... if interested ..

Thanks for the feedback, Ken. And yes, I was out there this morning. I had to shovel our drive after the foot of snow we got here in Oakland county last night. I hear yah on getting the smaller tree. My dad dug this up for me from his place in Petoskey. I guess we will se what happens in the spring!

Again, thanks!

Ben

Ben, just to be complete in our responses here, there is a very damaging disease of white pines-white pine blister rust-which can present something like that. You'd have the reddish discoloration, a few affected needles, then the discolored stem area would become sunken, AKA, a canker. Ultimately, the area of the canker grows so much less than the stem portions above and below it that you start to see an hourglass shape develop.

I don't think that's what's happening here, but keep one eye cocked for that. Incidentally, WPBR is one of those plant diseases which require an alternate host. It can't spread from pine to pine but rather, needs an intermediate host from the genus Ribes-the currants. So....if you become aware of any currants, gooseberries, etc. in or near your property, you may wish to get rid of them. Personally, I think a nice white pine, or a nice grouping of white pines, is much more worthwhile than a few currant bushes.

+oM

Thanks +oM. I was considering that also. I have been reading up on White Pine diseases in order to figure out what may be happening. I don't think I have any currant bushes on my property. But, I'll definitely be on the look out for WPBR. Guess I'll have to wait a couple months and see what happens in March! Haha.