Question
sick pine tree
My father has a gnarly little pine in his yard that serves a focal point at the front of his house. He is very worried that it might be dying.
The house and tree are located in the Black Hills of SD. The house sits atop an almost solid limestone shelf. In its original state, the shelf had 0 to 4 inches of topsoil, depending on where you looked. Limestone juts out everywhere, but there is also plenty of natural grass and ground cover.
They built the house in 1974 and hauled in maybe a foot of topsoil for the front yard. The tree stands in the middle of the yard, which was planted with lawn grass. The pine tree at that time (1974) was pretty much the same size and shape as it is now--a kind of gnarled, wind-swept, interesting shape. It is located 10 feet from the front door, and one large root runs under the 3-foot sidewalk and regulary pushes up the concrete. Every year or so, my parents jack up the concrete and allow the root more room.
For 35 years the tree continued to look happy and healthy, then suddently a couple years ago it started looking sickly. The top began to looked unhealthy and with fewer needles, and over the course of two years the sickliness has slowly descended. It's trunk is about 12 to 18 inches across at the base, it stands approx 20 to 25 feet high. The only other piece of info I can give is that for a while there was a vine growing up its trunk and into its lower branches, but we removed the vine when the tree started to look bad, thinking the vine might be responsible for the disease. The tree has been vine-free for a year but it continues to decline.
There are many, many pine trees surrounding the house, and all of them are doing fine except for this one special little tree. Do you have any ideas of how we might save it? I've attached a picture. Thank you so much!
AnswerHi Jody:
I apologize for the delay in answering.
Several things may be an issue causing the gradual decline. It is very difficult to make a diagnosis w/o seeing the tree "in person". However, I don't think the vine was the problem. I would give the tree a good look over- look for things like; any evidence of bark damage to the trunk or roots that are close to the ground, any small holes (1-2 mm diameter) in the bark, any bark damage in the upper portions. Looking for any obvious physical damage is a good start. If nothing looks out of "sync", you may wish to contact your local county Extension office in your county. It is located in the county courthouse usually. These folks should be able to come out and take a look and may pick up on something that can help.
Steve
