UGH, i am going through a bad spell with my Wollemi but the brown needle issue is all over the entire tree comsuming 1/2 the length of most needles that are affected. 75% of all the branches on the tree are affected yet the tree continues to have new growth on the tips of 3 of the highest branches. I have tried moving the tree away from any heat vent, stopped all fertilizing and this past week did some major pruning of some the most damaged branches. I have no idea what to do anymore. This all started around December of 2008. I am hoping the weather warms up soon here in Vancouver so I can get it some sun which is really liked last summer. HELP!!!!!!
well the tree is taking a turn for the worse. The branches have become a bit droopy and the new growth on the ends of the existing branches have wilted. So sad as it did really well for 2 years and grew about a foot.
Sounds like it definitely got burned by something. Recently I've had a problem with a Norfolk Island pine house plant that we've had for years drying out and not being noticed to be in that condition until branches start to die. Probably your plant didn't need to be fertilized during the winter, when not growing as actively (if much at all). If you burned it with fertilizer there may be telltale salt deposits on the leaves. Otherwise maybe it picked up a severe mite infestation that you did not notice. This could explain failure after 2 years of success (if you were using the same approach the whole time). Look for fine webbing and a finely speckled appearance to any remaining green leaves.
thanks for the reply! I looked for fine webs and mites and found nothing. I also did not find any salt spots on the needles. I'm going to stop watering it at all in hopes that maybe its water stressed and put it in the sun on my deck. The tree thrived when it received real sun in the past and now its warm enough during the day (our deck gets warm as well as facing south) In your experience, can the tree overcome water stress if the soil is allowed to dry out a bit? I sure hope it make it as it has a very large "snow cone" on the very top of the tree which in the past meant vigorous growth when it got some real sun =(
sadly, the tree which had triples in size in just 2 years died. There was no stopping the needles from turning brown starting from the tips then progressing to the branch. Then slowly the branch would die from the end of the branch progressing to the trunk. It took 5 months for this to totally kill every needle and branch on the tree. With just a few branches left i put it outside in the sun which this tree just loved in the past. Real sun and warmth previously meant big time new growth but this was not to be this time. So utterly disappointing
these trees can survive quite nasty weather and can survive outside, i live in castlemaine victoria australia and grow these babies and have them outside all yeaar round and they cop minus 5 degrees celsius frosts with no problems at all these plants have survived countless ice ages and need cold conditions in the winter.it sounds to me like it has been in a dry warm room and could have been affected from either gas heating issues or been to close to bright light near a window or something maybe.
Hi My boyfriend bought a Wollemi pine that we have planted in the backyard and I have it watered automatically and I daily give it some more but I too noticed the brown ends of branches. What I started to do was break off the brown part. They actually snap off right at the edge of the brown part. If the whole branch is brown I can easily snap it off at the trunk. I was afraid to tell my boyfriend but two months later I saw these areas all had new growth!!! The ones where I removed the entire branch were growing new branches and where I snapped an end off, there was a new very green growth coming out. I finally had the nerve to tell my boyfriend and show him how this seemed to help the plant. It’s still growing taller and taller and as the original poster said, the top is really green, none of this brownish ends. In addition some branches now have sprouted TWO branches, and this past year for very first time we have Wollemi cones or whatever their pollinating apparati is called. So perhaps someone can experiment trying this before adding too much water or too much fertilizer. We do not get freezing temps here. We have not fertilized the tree so perhaps we should. We have rosemary at the base. I’ve put some photos. The eastern southern part of the tree has all the pollinating cones. See there’s also some ball which may be the female part. We hope we can keep it going.
