Should I be worried about my pine trees?

10 years ago

last modified: 10 years ago

Last year I noticed what looked like a fungus on some of my white pines. This spring more trees were afflicted. Does anyone know what this is?

When it first appears this fungus (or whatever it is) is a bright orange. In these pictures it has faded to yellow. The next phase is that the fungus disappears and the tree is bleeding sap.

Is this going to be fatal to my little pine forest?

If I plant some spruce seedlings amidst the pines (already have planted some, but thinking about planting more) will the spruce be immune to this pine tree ailment?

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Comments (3)

corunum z6 CT
10 years ago
So sorry about the pines, Sped. I remember when you were planting new ones. Does this look like it could be the problem:White Pine Blister Rust

Hope something helps.

Jane
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I am sorry that you have this disease!!! Prior to reading Jane's link, I didn't know anything about white pine blister rust other than the alternative host is various members of the genuses that include gooseberries and currants . So it is illegal to grow those in NH (frustrating to me as a gardener who loves eating gooseberries since I can't even grow the ones that are resistent) and wild ones were removed by the CCC (I think) many decades ago. So if you remove any of those plants on your property, that will help since it needs both sides of the cycle to survive, but it also means that any pine that isn't 5 needled or other evergreens such as spruces, arborviate, etc will be fine since they aren't susceptible.

Edited to add that I would look into how to prevent it spreading since it creates an economic as well as ecological problem, white pine being an important species on both fronts.
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spedigrees z4VT
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you so much for the informative articles. It looks dismal, not just for my own young pine forest, but for the many acres of older pine forest uphill from them, their parent trees.

After mulling it over I have arrived at a philosophical outlook on the situation. When I say this is a pine forest, that is not entirely true. Both really are mixed forests with a variety of maple, hickory, apple and other species amidst the pines. So the way I look at it, while the pines are doomed, the other species will prosper and thrive and take over when their piney neighbors have been reduced to compost and relinquished their monopoly on the sunlight. We do plan to plant more spruce seedlings amidst the pines. It is good news that this rust disease does not affect spruce as well as pines, so unless the wood borer beetle that everyone is so worried about makes an appearance, the spruce trees should be able to carry on the legacy of the pines.

I haven't actually planted many trees on the upper hill where most of our pines are. That area of forest pretty much seeded itself. The trees that we did plant, spruce, maple, birch, apple, are down hill from the woods in back.

Again, thanks for the info. Better to plan for a pine extinction than to continue wondering.