Help for Howell's dwarf spruce

19 years ago

I planted a Howell's bicolor dwarf spruce about three years ago and it seemed to be doing fine until last fall. Last summer, I planted some lemon balm next to it. By the end of the summer I noticed that on the side where the lemon balm was growing up against it the needles had fallen off. That was about one-eighth of the tree. (It's is only about 5" tall). I removed the plants so it could "breathe". The spruce seemed to be doing fine, other than the bald spot on the one side.

Today, I came back from vacation and noticed that the bottom two-thirds of the tree has dropped its needles and the two cones left on it have dried up. Usually at this time of year we get about six red cones at the top of the tree, but there are none this year.

What needles are left are still green and bluish on the ends as normal. A few needles fell off when I brushed my hand on the branches. There is one lower branch that is still partly green.

I'm afraid to water it in case there is root rot. We did have had some rain and snow while I was gone. Does this sound like a parasite? Does it sound like I killed it?

It was a very expensive and beautiful tree and I hate to lose it.

Thanks!

Mary

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Comments (3)

pineresin
19 years ago
I would think it is a little early for the new cones to be appearing, if you just had snow last week. The cold will hold it back a bit.

Can you post a photo?

Resin
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
19 years ago
i doubt the other plants had any impact unless you severed all the roots planting them ...

do you have your lawn sprayed with weed killer ... could drift have hit the tree ...

cones vary year to year .... not really diagnostic ...

we could really use some pix to get much further ....

has your spring been so dry that you already need to water? what is your native soil? ... did you amend the planting hole .. if so, with what?

the problem with 'evergreens' .. is that needles can stay green for a long time after they have failed ... so we have to ask what happened to this area one or two years ago .... perhaps resin can tell us how long needles hang onto a bicolor .. or whatever its proper name currently is ... before they are shed ...

and.. are the buds on the rest of the tree swelling.. or look alive??

ken
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marynj
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you for your quick response.

I looked at the spruce again and noticed there are tiny white cocoons (about 1/8" round) hanging on some of the branches. On one branch there is a string of about five of them. Does it sound like spiders or some type of mite? I didn't see anything crawling on the tree.

There is no new growth, no buds, nothing.

We had rain while we were gone and we had snow and ice one day. When we planted the tree about three years ago, the only thing we added was dead leaves as a fertilizer. I might have added an evergreen tree fertilizer spike last year. Otherwise, the soil has not been amended. We are fortunate to have lots of good topsoil. Our soil is slightly acidic.

The tree is next to our neighbor's fence. There is a slight possibility that they could have sprayed a weed killer in the area, but I doubt it.

Whatever is killing my spruce is working fast. It looked pretty healthy when we checked it right before vacation about two weeks ago.

I will try to post a photo. The problem is I don't have a digital camera and have never posted photos on here before.

Mary