If white pine root decline, there will be "bleeding" of sap near the ground line/root collar. I've got it at my place, but I've never seen it in so young a pine. Depending on the age of the tree, I can tell when it is going to die, and I've never had one to die in quite that way from WPRD. I'd say the smallest pine is dead, don't know about the other two. Just curious, do you 'candle' or prune those trees in some way. They look awfully small for their age and the new growth is very short. BTW, "click for larger view" doesn't work for me, really tough to see much.

please learn how to load the pix into the post.. from your hard drive .... using the camera/photo icon below the box you type in ...

a 4 year old strobus should be about 8 feet tall .. so i wonder why yours arent ...

i also think the brown one is dead. and i would dig it up and see what was going on with the roots ...

do you have that famous OH clay ... ?? if so.. how did you plant them .... amend?? and how do you water them ????

i'd review the pix again.. but id have to open 4 new windows again ...

are any other pines in the 'hood suffering from anything.. if not.. i dont buy a rampart disease process in your little bed .... and would lean toward cultural problems ...

ken

Agreed^...these plants are far too young to be suffering from the maladies you list. In my rather different situation-that is of some acreage planted to white and red pine, Norway spruce, hybrid larch, and a smattering of other species, all told numbering close to ten thousand trees....I will every now and then see a white pine just up and die. And this in land that once supported giant stands of giant white pines. I don't know the cause....will likely never know the cause, but that's why we plant them by the thousand. One or two volunteer white pine on the property also rather suddenly browned up and died, but meanwhile, whole bunch more didn't die, and continue to put on growth, usually several feet height increment per year.