Shore Pine - Sudden Decline

[Gran_Puma]

I have (soon to be had?) a nice shore pine collected from Anton Nijhuis, purchased from John Eads during his first Instagram live sale (2021/22). Soil was half replaced from the field soil into the usual 1:1:1 A/L/P mix in the spring that I received it; plan was to do the other half of the soil in spring 2026. Everything was going well, strong growth last year and this spring. Tree looked fine this week, I did not have a chance to water it at the usual time yesterday due to young kids staying up late and my wife working, did a light water around 11:40 PM. Went out this afternoon to do a normal watering and saw that new needles (this year) are browning/brown, and the other needles have turned a pale olive green almost grey.



Immediately watered it, moved it to a location that will receive morning light, hit it with an application of RAW grow fertilizer and a treatment of Daconil (in case of a random fungus). Is it going to pull through or am I going to witness it going to the compost pile within the next month? All of my other pines are fine and healthy (Shore Pine, JBP, JRP, JWP, Loblolly, Short Pine).

White tinge is from the Daconil.

 

[River's Edge]

I have (soon to be had?) a nice shore pine collected from Anton Nijhuis, purchased from John Eads during his first Instagram live sale (2021/22). Soil was half replaced from the field soil into the usual 1:1:1 A/L/P mix in the spring that I received it; plan was to do the other half of the soil in spring 2026. Everything was going well, strong growth last year and this spring. Tree looked fine this week, I did not have a chance to water it at the usual time yesterday due to young kids staying up late and my wife working, did a light water around 11:40 PM. Went out this afternoon to do a normal watering and saw that new needles (this year) are browning/brown, and the other needles have turned a pale olive green almost grey.

View attachment 610726View attachment 610727View attachment 610728

Immediately watered it, moved it to a location that will receive morning light, hit it with an application of RAW grow fertilizer and a treatment of Daconil (in case of a random fungus). Is it going to pull through or am I going to witness it going to the compost pile within the next month? All of my other pines are fine and healthy (Shore Pine, JBP, JRP, JWP, Loblolly, Short Pine).

White tinge is from the Daconil.

Would it be possible to take a closer up picture of the needles in a couple of areas?
Is most of the dead new growth on one side of the tree? Or is it evenly distributed? When field soil is being replaced in collected trees it is usually replaced in a shorter time frame than 4 years apart. Having two very different types of substrate can pose root issues due to the difficulty of watering evenly. That may have contributed to the decline.
The reason I wish to see the needles closer up is that I suspect a fungal issue such as needle cast has weakened the tree. Shore pine are susceptible to needle cast and it is a very common issue with collected trees.
The other option is Fire blight , two characteristics to check for are if the brown shoots are shaped like a shephards crook, and if cankers appear between the dead portion and the live portion. Oozing sap! Commonly shows up in hot humid conditions and is bacterial infection.
Hope the comments and questions help with your situation.

 

[Gran_Puma]

Sure thing, see the attached. The hardest hit side was the one that I had tilted higher than the other. We had a wet spring and early summer in Northeast Ohio this year. The browning is throughout the tree, but not nearly as bad on the lower side.

A couple of the Loblolly has needlecast this spring, but I treated all of the pines along with the infected. Those did not miss a beat. This did have what appeared to be Western Pine Gall rust on it the spring I received it. I tried to cut it out on the branch that had it, but it didn't make through the winter, it's been cut off since.

 

[River's Edge]

Sure thing, see the attached. The hardest hit side was the one that I had tilted higher than the other. We had a wet spring and early summer in Northeast Ohio this year. The browning is throughout the tree, but not nearly as bad on the lower side.

A couple of the Loblolly has needlecast this spring, but I treated all of the pines along with the infected. Those did not miss a beat. This did have what appeared to be Western Pine Gall rust on it the spring I received it. I tried to cut it out on the branch that had it, but it didn't make through the winter, it's been cut off since.
View attachment 610732View attachment 610733View attachment 610734

Thanks for the additional pictures. based on them I would lean towards the Fire Blight. Overall the foliage appears weaker than I would suspect if the tree was growing well after the repot. For that reason I believe there might be underlying root issues from the dichotomy in the soil mix.
Suggested action would be to prune off the dead material and monitor the watering as carefully as possible.Check that the one side does not dry out too much and the other side is not staying too wet. Do not fertilize any further at this point.
Best of luck.

 

[River's Edge]

The last option is Diploid Tip Blight. However the browning does not seem to be starting from the lower portion the tree and working its way up to the canopy, actually seems the other way around. Also I cannot observe the black fruiting spore on the dead needles from the pictures provided.
From pictures it is difficult to say though.
Be sure to disinfect any tools used to prune.
If you have access to systemic fungicide I would be inclined to use it.

 

[Gran_Puma]

I was just about to ask if you think I should also apply some Heritage G (Azoxystrobin) or Bonide Infuse?

I was looking up the fire blight for pines, but wasn't coming up with much. Can you share a link?

 

[River's Edge]

Fire blight, a bacterial disease, primarily affects apple and pear trees, but it can also infect shore pines, causing similar symptoms. Key indicators include wilting, browning, or blackening of leaves and shoots, often with a "shepherd's crook" appearance in young shoots. Cankers, which are sunken, cracked areas on branches, can also form and ooze a bacterial substance. While shore pines are not a primary host, they can be susceptible to fire blight under certain conditions.

Symptoms on Shore Pines:

• Blossom blight: Infected blossoms wilt, turn brown, and may drop prematurely.
  
  
• Shoot blight: Young shoots wilt, turn brown or black, and may develop a characteristic "shepherd's crook" shape.
  
  
• Cankers: Dark, sunken cankers with cracked margins can form on branches and trunks.
  
  
• Ooze: Bacterial ooze may be visible on infected plant parts during warm, wet weather.
  
  
• Scorched appearance: Infected areas may appear scorched or burned.
  

Factors Contributing to Infection:

• Warm, wet weather: Favorable conditions for bacterial growth and spread.
  
  
• Open wounds: Infections can enter through natural openings like flowers or wounds.
  
  
• Insect vectors: Insects can spread the bacteria from infected to healthy trees.
  
  
• Overwintering cankers: Bacteria can survive in cankers on infected trees, acting as a source of infection in the spring.
  

 

[MaciekA]

Did the entire color transition happen in less than a day? Like from perfect shore pine green to “indoor juniper gray” in less than 24 hours?

That would be speed-limit-of-light-breaking fast for any fungal-related color change, IMO.

 

[Gran_Puma]

Did the entire color transition happen in less than a day? Like from perfect shore pine green to “indoor juniper gray” in less than 24 hours?

That would be speed-limit-of-light-breaking fast for any fungal-related color change, IMO.

It basically did, nice deep green to what you see. The new growth was nice and compact and all over the tree with a decent amount of back budding. I have it on the late summer fertilizer regime (kinda heavy). I did the same last year after fertilizing it lightly in spring since it pouted the year before when I half bare rooted it.

It was starting to drop third year needles. Which is why my initial thought was heat related. Since we have had temps near 90 for about a week.

 

[rockm]

Such sudden decline might be due to shock of some kind at least in my limited experience with pines. Watering (drying out) might be one of the causes that could shock the tree into this response

 

[River's Edge]

Since we have had temps near 90 for about a week

Key piece of information revealed!

 

[MaciekA]

I agree with the others that could be heat. I’ve seen shore pines and lodgepoles handle unbelievable heat and sun intensity (heat dome 2021 in particular), but always kept up with their watering. I’ve never tempted fate with keeping up on water.

That said, the only times I’ve seen a rapid full canopy change to olive drab in conifers generally (just not contorta specifically because I guess I flew through the keyhole for mine so far) is in single-missed-watering full dry out situations.

Fungi take a little bit of time to progress their way through a tree, consider the time scales to transit the tree and infect needles and so on. Infected needles in pine often still fight a good fight of a mixture of good and bad colors / banding etc, and the distribution is rarely so uniform.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Quick glance at the photo, and I assumed the tree dried out - particularly combined with hot temps. Disease and insect damage take a while. When I see a pine that crashes like that I immediately think "roots" - and either they dried out or the tree was too aggressively repotted, or the tree was collected without enough roots, or someone dumped a ton of chemical fertilizer on the tree. Combined with high temps and direct sun... game over.

 

[Gran_Puma]

Giving it the last ditch effort, I repotted and removed the dead roots, I'd say about 2/3 were dead. Of course the field soil that was left in the middle contained the majority of the surviving roots.

Come on lady luck! Hit on my 10% chance that this makes it.

 

[Adamski77]

I think with repot the chances are much smaller than what you mentioned... but I'll keep fingers crossed for you...

 

[River's Edge]

Giving it the last ditch effort, I repotted and removed the dead roots, I'd say about 2/3 were dead. Of course the field soil that was left in the middle contained the majority of the surviving roots.

Come on lady luck! Hit on my 10% chance that this makes it.

With the emergency repot your chances will be improved if you tent the tree to keep humidity levels on the needles higher! I would recommend rigging a large clear plastic bag over top of the tree to prevent extra drying out while the roots recover.