Our newly purchased home has an old blue spruce that looks very sickly and I want to know what I can do to help nurse it back to health. The tree is about 25 feet tall. The tips of the branches have the blue shaded needles intact but from there to the trunk the branches have lots of moss, dry spindly twigs attached to the branches with no needles. The very top of the tree looks healthier than the middle to bottom portion. Any suggestions? Do I trim off branches? Is it diseased? What can I do to make it more healthy? thanks, Flora
Has spruce aphids or mites. Look at it closely, perhaps with a magnifier to see what might be present. Climate not cold enough out here to kill these off in winter, damage like you have described common. Your tree may never look good without a spray program designed to protect it from such pests.
Maybe your tree has not been in favorable growing conditions for many years and it just struggles to produce new growth each year to stay alive. The moss could be a sign of poor light for photosynthesis combined with sandy dry soil or wet soggy soil stressing the roots can also cause a similar appearance to your description. On a Blue Spruce Mites generally target closer to the tips giving an orange dead colour where the infestation occurs. Although Aphids seem to build up on the inner needles, providing your tree had any. The possibility of disease isn't out of the question either. Ron B suggests a spray program. I agree with him you should call some to look at it if your uncertain as to the future of your tree. Call JimmQ from this forum he is an excellent local Arborist. Not to mention he is probably reading this thread anyway. Have a great,, Jim.
