Black Hills Spruce Leaking Sap

[mrcasey]

While at Lowes today, I saw a 3 gal black hills spruce with a 2" trunk and lots of branches. The garden center manager agreed to sell it to me for 75% off. He also assured me that the tree, while stressed, would be ok. I've never worked on spruce trees and couldn't resist the chance to learn for such a pittance.

The tree has lost a few lower branches and it's oozing a little sap as seen in the picture. I didn't see
any bugs and I don't see any obvious cankers or anything. The needles on the rest of the tree are not
discolored. The upper 1/2 of the tree is pushing vibrant growth. Does anybody know what needs to be done, if anything?

 

[sorce]

Interesting....

I been trying to get a positive ID on mine....and the BHS must have stood for Black Hills Spruce.
Thanks for that....

I would guess there is something else going on.

I got some wounds from wire that sapped up but don't ooze.

And I noticed aphids love this one...and my Alberta.
So keep a diligent eye as that sap will attract them.

Another thing....I always noticed the large ants going to aphids....this one has small ants....but they sure lead you right to em.

I just pull the needles forward on em and squish the shit out of em! Bastards!

How bout a fully?
Looks like a fun project!

Sorce

 

[0soyoung]

I would poke around the base of that branch (where the oozing appears to be coming from in the pic). There may be some kind of boring insect larva under there causing the oozing. This is also a normal response to wounding (e.g., like it got stabbed with an ice pick or nail). With simple wounding, the oozing will stop soon; with borers the oozing will continue and the area from which it occurs expand.

 

[mrcasey]

I scraped some and poked around but didn't find anything obvious. The tree is growing in very damp nitrolized wood shavings. On some of the dead branches, I did find these little black shell-looking things that were broken on top. They're about the size of a bb. At first, I thought maybe they were something like dead buds or bud sheaths, but now I'm having second thoughts. Here are some pictures taken with my magnifier camera.

 

[rockm]

The top pic looks like borers. The second photo is scale.

 

[Vance Wood]

The oozing my very well be a bore but usually they enter by way of a single round hole.