I'm new to the forum so I'm not sure if this is the right place to be posting this question or not, but I'll give it a try. I live in Central MN just north of the twin cities. I recently (3 years ago) transplanted three white pine trees from our family cabin in northern mn to our home in central mn. One of the trees seems to be doing fine, but the other two have a white fungus growth on the upper branches in particular but also on the lower branches where they extend from the main trunk. None of the trees are large -- perhaps 3 feet tall. The attached picture shows what I'm referring to as a white "fungus". I have tried washing it off with water, but it doesn't go away. And also, while I couldn't get the picture to show it clearly, if I examine it closely, it almost appears to have specks of orange embedded in some of the white fungus growth. Does anyone know what this is? And better yet, how to get rid of it? The one tree that does not exhibit this is growing spectacularly -- grew probably 10 inches or so this year. The other two that do have this fungus are growing, but far slower -- may have gained 2 inches or so this year. So it seems to be affecting their growth rate. Again, these are white pine trees from central mn. I see others all around mn, so don't feel like I mis-applied them to the wrong location. Thanks!
My guess too---white pine blister rust, Cronartium ribicola. http://ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/Ornamental/odin19/od19.htm Scroll down to 7th entry, under 'Pine Species---White'.
