if its really pissing you off.... be done with it soon ... lol

if you can hang on.. see what happens in spring ...

seems like the remnants of a small hole.. for what was probably a pretty big plant... did you take of roots circling on planting???

do i see 6 to 8 inches of growth last spring ..... that leader growth was pretty good also .....

really... its down to your personality type.. and how much it is irritating you ...

ken

It looks like it was planted very deeply??

Not really bothering me so much.i planned on leaving it till spring anyways. Was just trying to make a plan on what to put back there in the event of it not making it.

As for depth it may have settled a little low after planting.

Again im not in love with it..its a white pine but i dont want to replace what i dont have to. Guess i will see come spring. Other than planting depth any idea what would cause the severe browning of all needles?

Zone 7..planted on a slope for 2 years. in a row of other trees.no damage other than deer. All trees around it are fine at this point. Not near a raod or anything that would have put chemicals around it..no idea what did it but i will wait and give it a chance in spring but i do have my back up planned already incase.hate to lose it though it grew very well

Over the years, I've seen otherwise healthy looking red, jack and white pines, growing in plantings, die for no apparent reason. Some were 3-4 times the size of yours, so you would've thought that they were well on their way to a long life. Puzzling. A few of them, when inspected more closely, had extensive root damage inflicted by gophers. But not all that many.

I have seen conifers die when fertilizer with a fair nitrogen content is used regularly. I came to the conclusion that conifers may not like a steady diet of nitrogen but that's just an observation on my part. Never the less, I agree with GG, I've never seen a pine tree, with all of it's needles dead/brown, come back again. Not that it isn't possible I suppose.

I'm not sure how often you watered the tree but over watering could have caused the White Pine to brown like that. Wait for the spring to see if the tree gets new growth.

In the future if you plant another tree I'd recommend planting it so the top of the root ball is even or slight higher than the outside soil. Personally I would aim for slightly higher to compensate for any settling.

She's done Mike. Am i seeing damage to the bark at the bottom? Almost like its been girdled? Regardless, it looks like a new opportunity to me.

Al

Yeah not holding out much hope honestly.i watered it regularly the first year. Nothing after. Never fertalized. Maybe when digging it up i will find the C.O.D...may never know. Oh well as stated a new chance to plant a better nicer tree.

Newly planted conifers never want to be fertilized. It screws up their thinking.

"Newly planted conifers never want to be fertilized. It screws up their thinking."

Can you give an example or two of what this means?

Finally got around to getting this out of the ground so I thought i would update with a few pics. As soon as it got warm all the needles began to drop and it was pretty well over at that point. I didn't hold out much hope anyway. Other than it being planted to deep I didn't see to much wrong with the roots but maybe I am missing something.

I see there is a very small root mass for a tree that size. Points to some sort of rooting problem. Could be an assortment of things.

Never fertilize or amend soil unless you do a soil test first. The plant will do much better if you let the roots reach out grow in the soil it is planted in. Nursery's biggest profit maker selling you fertilizer and amendments you don't need. Base your plants needs on your soil test.

ok, thanks for the explanation ! I've seen small spruce send leaders out in multiple directions and wondered if that isn't what you meant by 'screws up their thinking'. But it could've been just a natural phenomenon.