Round Up resistance in corn comes from genetic modification at Monsanto labs. I am unaware of any effort or other push to genetically modify any trees for Round Up resistance.

For curiosity's sake, how close are these trees to the fields?

I am just hoping that there may a pine tree that has natural resistance to the stuff. the farmer north of me has a plane spray the field, and the one across the road uses a sprayer mounted on a tractor but I guess there is wind drift over to my side of the road.

Aerial spraying of glyphosate, er, Roundup, would be quite risky I'd think. I know lots of farmers using Roundup Ready seed for their corn and soybeans, that do not do aerial spraying of those fields, ever. I wonder if there isn't something else going on.

Also, the way glyphosate, er, Roundup works, is by being applied onto the green, growing tissue of the target plant, be it foliage, stems, or any other plant part which is green and photosynthetic. So, even if planes are flying past your pine trees, they'd have to be spraying the material right onto the foliage, or spraying when there's too much wind (Or ironically, not enough. Dead-calm air also causes drift).

Another thing that your post reminds me of is the Imprelis fiasco. That herbicide was brought onto the market with great claims of safety, etc. and is currently implicated in the deaths of thousands of trees around the country, especially large-growing conifers. Any Imprelis use around there?

+oM

Ken, in lihbeck's #2 post above, he does make mention of just that-aerial spraying going on near him. But basically you and I are in agreement-there's missing info here.

+oM

sorry tom... i missed that ...

he ought to contact his county Ag or extension office to determine..

the type of pines and his location ... and a diagnosis of what is going on with the pines ...

we are stabbing in the dark here.. with no pic.. no location ... no ID ... and only the facts provided ... which at best.. simply leads to the conclusions made.. since they are all 'leading' .. as perry mason might say ...

ken

Why don't you ask the farmers what they are spraying?
Works for me,

Frank

We live in central Missouri, and 2011 and 2012 were very hot and dry, the man who came out here from a tree service noted that there was a twirling of the growing tip needles indicating exposure to Round up. I think some thing else is actually killing them but the trees will turn bright orange and then the next year will be totally dead. But the Round up and dry recent years have made them sick making them vulnerable to what ever is actually killing them.

llhbeck, sounds like you sure want to blame Roundup for one reason or another. I'd be inclined to believe something else is at work here. It takes a lot of Roundup to kill a large tree. Again, not enough facts.
Are some trees affected more than others, or are single trees completely dying and a pine tree next to it is unaffected?
Are these five needle pines? Have you looked up Pine blister rust?
Mike

..........also, the mere fact of two consecutive hot drought years can easily send many plants around the bend.

Additionally, I don't know everything about herbicide damage, but I've never heard of that particular term or symptom being ascribed to injury from glyphosate. Can that chemical damage plants? Of course, that's its purpose, but so far, I think you might be, ah......barking up the wrong tree.

+oM

contact your local extension or AG office... maybe even soil conservation ... if your state has one ...

or your state forester ... thru any of the above offices ...

and keep us posted..

if you are right.. i will be the first to high fave you ...

but lets get some real.. hands on diagnostics ...

winter is s great time to get these peoples attention ... as compared to the farming season ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: note the authors are from MO ...

This post was edited by ken_adrian on Mon, Nov 25, 13 at 12:40

You could convince me that if my neighbor decided to soak his acre in Round Up to kill every weed not genetically engineered to with stand it then I should expect something to be bothered on my side.

I will note non lethal applications of Round Up on bush Honeysuckle seems to cause what I as a novice would call curling foliage.

None the less, I can not say this is the cause in this case. Maybe some pictures?

You could convince me that if my neighbor decided to soak his acre in Round Up to kill every weed not genetically engineered to with stand it then I should expect something to be bothered on my side.

I will note non lethal applications of Round Up on bush Honeysuckle seems to cause what I as a novice would call curling foliage.

None the less, I can not say this is the cause in this case. Maybe some pictures?

It's probably not roundup but Imprelis, which was made by DuPont and banned last year. Roundup has been used for decades, so I wouldn't expect any change in one year, but you can check out DuPont's claim website for more info. Roundup or Glyphosate has a very short lifespan before it decomposes into harmless chemicals, and you would have to apply incredible amounts to do damage to a tree...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/science/earth/12herbicide.html

Just google "Imprelis Tree" and look at images, you'l notice mostly pines are affected.

This post was edited by ocelaris on Wed, Nov 27, 13 at 10:33

I know I am responding to an old post, but I thought I'd add that on 4 separate occasions I have lost a pine tree within a month of various landscape employees spraying Roundup on the weeds under the pine trees. They tell me Roundup can't kill a large tree and that it was a coincidence that the pines died within a month. Yes, but 4 times on 4 separate occasions? Does anyone know whether pines are particularly sensitive to Roundup? Is there another way to attack the weeds growing among the pines?

Hand-weeding, other herbicides, various mulches. All can help but none will alone do the job.

im not buying phenie story ... as stated ...

why did you let them back after the first death ..

ken

Because they swore to me it wasn't caused by Roundup but was merely a coincidence.

That's what I'm thinking, coincidence. I can't see how spraying weeds on the ground under a grove of pines could kill the pines. There's no connection. Roundup doesn't poison the ground. It works through chlorophyll in the leaves. The pine trunks could be sprayed and it wouldn't have an effect on the trees.

I seem to remember reading in the literature that conifers in general are very resistant to Glyphosate herbicides. I work two days a week in a large garden which has extensive plantings of pines & other conifers & have often over -sprayed with Glyphosate at high strength hitting the lower branches of various conifers & have never seen any damage.

Indeed, it is common practice to overspray a field of spruce during that tree's late-summer semi-dormancy phase. One would not do that with a susceptible genus.

I live next to a cornfield that gets sprayed with Glyphosate annually from a tractor-mounted rig. No visible damage to any of the nearby white pines which ring the field.

Not sure why it happened, but I wanted to hear from the community before spraying the copious weeds under our spruces and pines again. We just planted 8 more large Norway Spruces in our back yard as a barrier between our property and a new recreational facility. Considering the sizable investment, I don't want to lose another tree...but I also don't want weeds. Thanks everyone for the input. I'll give it another try.

Phenie, I can only tell you. I can't make you believe me, but I've sprayed glyphosate under spruce trees perhaps thousands of times. There is simply nothing to worry about. Now that surely doesn't mean it's okay to be careless. That's always a bad idea, but considering your level of concern, I don't see that happening.

Congrats on planting the best spruce. Now get those weeds sprayed!

It's 2-4D that you never want to use under plantings

ron

Hmmmm....don't know about that ^. If you use the most common formulations of 2-4D, which are amine formulations, you will have no unwanted effects, so long as you've read the label and follow it. It is the ester formulation which is volatile, and which can float around and damage off-target veg.

Just sprayed some weeds about 12 inches away from ornamental dwarf spruce....it is warm today, 82 degrees, may be some small amount of evaporation, the patch was about 4 feet by 4 feet of ground cover so very low to ground... so a fair amount of round up in one area....do you think the spruce will be okay, no drift, just maybe some evaporation.... just worried...

I use roundup CAREFULLY around my conifers all the time

it doesn't seem to bother any of them

in fact , I spray weeds growing thru ground cover junipers without damage

ron

Besides , you already did the spraying, so......

you tell us what happens

I see this post is from 4 years ago. In the meantime, I did a bit more reading about this and learned that Roundup Extended Control (meant for driveways and other areas that won't get planted) should never be used under trees, as damage will result. Regular Roundup is no problem, and I have been careful to choose the right Roundup since then, with no tree damage resulting.

Have a read of this..... https://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/pdf/10.5558/tfc54024-1 even though this refers to observations almost 50 years ago it is specifically re young spruce so may be of interest.

I have(had) a very healthy pine tree on my property and round up was used to get rid of poisen ivy that had taken over. one year later the tree is definetly suffering. branches are not as full it definetly looks like it is dying. there does not appear to be any fungus or insects. is it just coinci with the timing. is it something else or could it be the round up. any advice on how to save the tree would be greatly appreciated

see the second comment directly above

what kind of roundup ?

watering might help

ron

and is it a pine tree , or you just calling it that ?

I have(had) a very healthy pine tree on my property and round up was used to get rid of poisen ivy that had taken over

==>> first you should have started your own post ...

second.. was the PI on the tree when it was sprayed ...

third.. how large was the PI vine .. if it was a huge vine .. perhaps what you are seeing is how the PI caused bad previous growth on the tree and the bare spots you are seeing are due to the lack of seeing the vine leaves...

you really havent given us anything to work with here other than RU was used .. how .. when.. where.. etc ...

pix would also help ...

ken

ps: agree with killer.. lots of peeps call every evergreen conifer a pine.. so an ID would help ... may as well tell us where you are also.. big city name...