Hello, I live in Nanaimo and have a pine tree (not sure what kind) that has round balls of growth on its branches and large patch of sap like substance on its trunk. What can I do?
Hello, I don't have a photo but the pine tree is about 30 feet tall and the growths on some of the branches are the size of a large orange or small grapefruit. I just bought the property and apparently the previous owner had a dog that he kept tied to the tree. The ground around the tree was full of ruts which I have covered with topsoil. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
How many needles are present in each little bundle growing out of the branch stem? That will help narrow down the poetential agents causing the galls on your tree.
There are two needles in each bunch. I noticed that one of the growths that fell on the ground is white and powdery inside. Quite a few needles are turning brown. Hopefully that is adequate information. Thanks for any advice you can provide!
Thanks Ron B, that matches what my tree has - western gall rust. What can I do about it? I don't want to chop the tree down but there are a few pines nearby and am worried that they might be affected.
From the above link: "Cultural control: Remove trees with galls within 300 yards of nurseries. In nurseries, remove all affected trees. Remove galls whenever practical. Favor uninfected or lightly infected trees during thinning or seed collection. Chemical control: Needed only for landscape trees or Christmas trees. Protect new shoots from budbreak through shoot elongation. Preventive fungicide applications. Based on a single trial in California with Monterey pine, triadimefon provided 7 days of protection and about 2 weeks of kickback activity. Disease control averaged 70%. Bayleton 50 DF at 8 oz/A. Bayleton 50 T&O is also registered. 12-hr reentry. Dithane DF at 2.13 to 4.27 lb/A plus a spreader sticker. Effective for Scots pine. 24-hr reentry. Strike 50 WDG at 8 oz/100 gal water. 12-hr reentry. Gallex (ready to use) painted on very young galls to reduce further development. Galls may return the following year or, if treated late, may continue to develop. Tissue surrounding the gall may be injured especially on younger plants. Prepare the surface by removing debris from around the galled area. Allow drying before application. Registered for use in Oregon and Washington but not registered in Idaho. 12-hr reentry." Some or all of chemicals mentioned may not be approved for homeowner use or have different presence in Canada than USA.
Thanks for the information, but those chemicals sound toxic and there are quite a few birds that use the tree. I guess the only option is to try to cut off the branches with the galls on them. Will the branches grow back or is it possible to cut off too many? Is this the right time of year to do this or should I wait until the fall? Also, how do I know if this is a shore pine or lodgepole pine? I found a pine cone and it is quite small.
Coast, Lodgepole pine can be seen at http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=177 but I don't know the common name Shorepine. Lodgepole is often more "contorted" near the coast.
Shore Pine and Lodgepole Pine are the same tree, Pinus contorta. The former is the subspecies found on the coast (Pinus contorta subsp. contorta), while the latter is the interior subspecies (Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia). When dealing with the species as a whole (including both subspecies), the common name Lodgepole Pine is the one that tends to get used. In Nanaimo, yours will be the coastal subspecies (unless someone has deliberately collected seeds in the interior and planted it there, which is unlikely). To see the interior subspecies, you'd need to head somewhere like Kamloops.
Local native population found in wetlands is Alaskan race. Form found on outer coast is different, as are those in interior. If yours is planted it could be any of them, unless this particular disease is more prevalent here on those from interior. In Seattle plants looking as though from interior are often markedly more sparse and shabby than those from maritime areas, seeming to be much more likely to have eriophyid mites.
For the Pine gall (Western gall rust) it is best to prune off the whole limb and burn the wood. Spraying is only effective under controlled conditions. In a forest but not so much a plantation it will require an overhead spot spray (directly on the galls) which is real tricky to accomplish. I've used Bayleton on production Table Grapes and know of no known problems with birds but again placement of the fungicide directly on the galls will not be easy to do. If the galling problem is too rampant for treatment we would just go ahead prune off all of the limbs that had them and if they returned soon then knock the tree down in a forest grown situation. More than likely your tree is the Lodgepole - Pinus contorta var.latifolia as galling is a little rarer to be seen on the Shore Pine - Pinus contorta, not to be confused with Pinus contorta var.contorta which has a darker green and slightly shorter needle than the typical Shore Pine. Michael, I think I know where you are coming from now. Yes, Lodgepole and Shore Pine are the same for a genus and species but the plants themselves are different as Ron suggests. What I found interesting is that one of the forms I have is not the traditional Lodgepole and neither is it a typical Shore Pine either, it is Pinus contorta var.murrayana as I later learned it to be (came out of Oregon).. I am old hat as I learned these to be a variety rather than a subspecies. Jim
Hi Jim, They are treated as subspecies following William B Critchfield's monograph of the species: Geographic variation in Pinus contorta. Publ. Maria Moors Cabot Found. Bot. Res. 3 (Harvard Univ.), 1957. Here's a distribution map for the species; green = subsp. contorta red = subsp. latifolia blue = subsp. murrayana
What I'm talking about is that within ssp. contorta the ones in local wetlands are supposed to be from Alaska, rather than being the same race as those on the outer coast. I noticed for years that they were different before I read this explanation. Habitat is often different, too, with those here tending to be found growing in cold, wet, low-lying areas (swamps and bogs) instead of stabilized dunes.
Not to be disrespectful but it appears that the species form of Shore Pine and the subspecies form of contorta have been lumped together in the green portion in the map. The Alaskan form, extends down the coast to Mendocino but a little ways inland is the "subspecies" (in quotes as we called it variety and many others still do on the West Coast) contorta. Outer coastal is the species form of Shore Pine. Inland coastal is the subspecies contorta is how we equated things. Aside from a difference of the two Pines in needle color and in needle length there is also the fact that the needles of the subspecies contorta will have more of a pronounced twist to the needles. There is also a third form in this close knit contorta group that I've seen and perhaps Ron has also by what I am reading. Let the botanists figure out what to call it such as Pinus contorta subsp.contorta var.contorta. Years ago we propagated an aurea form from the third form. It was not ever sold per say but it is in a few very select collections here in California as well as in one private garden that I know of in Japan. There is also an aurea form of the murrayana that has been recently available from a couple of wholesale nurseries in Oregon, one in particular, that was originally found in California. Jim
Thanks everybody, I think you've answered my questions. Now I know the tree is a subspecies of pinus contorta with western gall rust. I also found out in the meantime from looking at a government website that galls on the branches won't kill the tree but could spread and infect a young tree. In the meantime I had the lower branches removed and the tree looks better. Also, the gall rust is more prevalent due to climate change.
