Were these planted as seedlings? Did the browning start right away mid to late first season?

If it did, it could've been root damage caused by roots getting too dry during the planting process, when the roots are left out in the sun for too long before getting into the ground.

12" tall doesn't sound very big for 3 yo plants but if the initial damage was severe, that might account for that.

A picture or two of the tree(s) might help.

White spruce, Picea glauca grow good here and I've never had winter burn on any of mine.

Thanks for the response. Here are some pictures of the trees from the end of last winter. The browning is never there in the summer/fall, it is always like march/april that I see it. They were planted as seedlings as part of the full shelterbelt planting which was about 400 trees total including about 125 of these white spruce. They did not sit out in the sign and were actually planted on a fairly cool day the year they were planted. They seem to look good in the summer/fall, then winter comes and they look like this after winter. Eventually the brown needs fall off and the trees look very sad and not full. I may have underestimated their height, but about 1/2 of them will have been planted for 2 full years this june and the other half were planted last may as we had to reaplace about 60 that didnt make it through their first winter.

Here are some photos of them that i went out and took today.

Not knowing your general location, it looks as though these trees are in a particularly open and windy location. These young trees are tough but could easily have some winter burn under such severe conditions.

The fact that the new growth from last year, looks so good is encouraging so I wouldn't give up on them yet.

This all should improve over time as the trees get more established.

The main thing now is you want to see new healthy growth again this spring. If no new growth, the tree is dead.

125 trees would not be too many to protect in winter, and I do see people around here using the larger, ventilated tree tubes (5" dia.?) on seedlings for a year or two.

Another method is run a snow fence on the 'sunny side' of the row. The incessant winter sun doesn't help at all for needles drying out and the snow fence provides some shade and wind protection. And if it does snow, the mounding snow will cover the trees, which alleviates that whole problem entirely. ;-)

You might want snow fence on both sides of the row depending on direction of prevailing winds during snowstorms (so mounding snow covers the trees.)

And if these WS just don't want to grow there, I would recommend Meyers spruce (Picea Meyeri) instead. These have been grown specifically for windbreaks in usda Zone 3, by NDSU for years, with no reports of winter burn.

;-)

This is fantastic information so thank you very much.... yes I am in southern Saskatchewan, Canada and wind is just an everyday thing we deal with. The willows and Poplars that are planted in the rows on either side of the spruce are growing like crazy and should provide more protection to these Spruce every year so fingers crossed that they will recover.

Really great info here and I appreciate it a lot.

You're welcome and welcome to the boards! :-)

Please come back later in the season and show us some 'Success pictures'.

Some of those look pretty toasty. The buds might be alive. Just have to wait and see.

My biggest concern would be when spruce are planted in rows, with rows of fast-growing trees planted in alternating rows, each side of the spruce, the poplars will outgrow the slower growing spruce trees, thus producing more and more shade over the smaller spruce trees.

The spruce, are 'Full Sun' plants so with the decreasing sun exposure, causing a reduced rate of growth, 10 years down the road, there will be rows of large poplars, with small, anemic or dead spruces, in between the rows of poplars.

Windbreaks should have conifers planted on the south side (however many rows are desired) and deciduous trees planted north of those.

eta: This does not include smaller, shrubby deciduous plants, which could be planted south of the spruce.