Blue Spruce Blues

I had a 8 foot Blue Spruce that was actually blue. It was in danger of being overtaken bay two white pines so I paid $$$ to have it moved 50 feet to a more open area of the yard. However, since I moved it, it is no longer blue! Is there a fertilization schedule/process that I need to follow to bake my spruce blue again? What makes them blue in one area and green 50 feet away?

Tedf44901@aol.com

 

Hi Ted:

I've had it happen to me whereby I moved a 'Bakeri' Blue Spruce from one
location in our next door neighbor's yard to another part of the same yard
and lost the blue needles. The loss of the blue color was only temporary
as in 3 years the blue color was back and stronger than before the tree was
moved. I've also seen the reverse happen with another 'Bakeri' also in the
that the tree had a strong green cast to the needles for about 8 years in the
ground, moved the tree along side a 'Hoopsi' and a 'Koster' Spruce and lo
and behold about 3 years later the tree turned blue, rivaling the 'Hoopsi' in
color. One explanation as to why one tree did one thing is so much easier
to respond to as far as why the tree went from blue to green. The other of
going from green to blue is not so simple at all. It used to be thought that
when we moved a tree from one location to another that the trees roots
would find a new source of Nitrogen that had become somewhat depleted
where the tree was first located. We do not want to overly fertilize Spruce
with medium to high doses of Nitrogen anyway as we will lose the shape
and we risk losing the brilliance of the color to the needles.

In your case it seems to me that the tree may indeed have found a location in
which the roots have found a richer source of nutrients in the ground. Give
the tree a couple of years and then you should see the blue coloring come back.
I know it worked for me with my 'Thomsen' and 'Moerheim' selections in which
soon after they were planted in the ground they had a noticeable green cast to
their needles and a few years later developed the color that I had hoped for. I
would not fertilize at any time with a strong dose of Nitrogen. For the Winter
I will give my trees a 0-10-10 sprinkled in a circle about 2 feet from their
trunks. My plants do very well for me with no Nitrogen application at all.

Jim

 

copper at base of the tree will work.