First off I must say that it is a pleasure to fine such a wealth of knowledge and reading has been a pleasure here. I am new to the tree world and possibly in a bit over my head. Here's my deal, I am located in Northern NJ and planted 8 Eastern While Pines in October of 05. The trees in my opinion were not planted in the best of conditions in regards to soil. A 2' mound of bankrun but I did dig the holes 2x the size of root ball and fill remaining with a mix of topsoil and peat moss. My first problem was I did not remove the burlap on root ball. I did on one tree and found the whole root falling apart so opted not to remove remaining. Will this be a problem with rooting? How much time will they take to root? Second I have a couple of trees showing problems. The first wilted a month after planting and to be honest I counted her out but she is still hanging on. This tree is first in line and does see substantial wind at times. The second tree is showing some brown needles at the top and this started about 2 weeks ago. And the third tree suffered some ice damage and a couple drooping limbs that have not recovered. I have been watering these trees every third day using a drip hose and a week ago I converted to a plain hose and watering each tree manually due to dry weather. I also did fertilize and much. Any ideas or comment since I would hate to loose any Pics attached Thanks! Tony
i would always remove the burlap. if a root ball is falling apart on you go ahead and set the tree in the hole and then remove the burlap. it is suppose to be biodegradeable, but years later you can still have the burlap pretty much intact. also, if any burlap is exposed above the soil line, it can act like a wick and quickly dry out the planting hole. good rule of thumb, remove the burlap and any wire caging around the root ball. i'm not saying this has anything to do with your pine's health. if i remember correctly, white pines don't like wet feet. maybe too much water? did the symptoms appear after you fertilized?
Thanks for the reply .. I did remove the wire from the root ball and put several cuts in burla with a knife. As far as did th eissues happen after fertilizer = only on the tree with slight browning on top. I will relax on watering but soil does have good drainage Thanks! T
sounds like you are on top of it. i live in arkansas where white pines are marginal. on a property i use to maintain they had six 20 foot tall by 15 wide white pines that had been in the ground for probably 8 years or so planted throughout the property. within the 3 years i worked there we had to remove 4 of them. they were planted in lawn areas that were irrigated. the irrigation was set more for watering the lawn instead of the trees. these areas remained wet all of the time and they turned completely brown within 2-3 weeks. they were beautiful, but didn't like it there for some reason. maybe they are sensitive or something. best of luck.
Hi, I would never plant them in peat moss and topsoil, both of which stay way too wet too long for pines. They love sandy, gritty, even rocky conditions, and won't do well in flower-bed type of places. They also like to dry right out (relatively) before it rains again, so I would not still be watering at this point as they should have plenty of rain in NJ to manage on their own by now. Pines do go all rigid and brown when they're drowning, they just look like they're dry.
