Japanese Black Pine Needle Drop

Deep Sea Diver

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Not normal for our neck of the woods. Here’s a couple JBP in the back yard to compare with.

image.jpg image.jpg

The last time I saw something like this on a JBP it was a tree that had blocked drain holes at some point and a bunch of muck in the bottom of the pot. Being curious, I’d look under the hood.

Cheers
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Potawatomi13

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With added pictures, conversation seems THIS is good reason/excuse for emergency repot NOW into 100% pumice. Into somewhat larger growing pot without delay. Tree needs help BAD😖. Even new buds non/practically nonexistent.
 
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lillarch

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Wow thank you everyone for taking the time to give me some advice! I will follow up at around this time next year with hopefully some improvement.
 

lillarch

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The new pics show the problem is worse than appeared in the earlier shots. Many shoots only have a few needles and some are completely dead so the problems are now approaching critical.

Fert regime you are using should supply enough nutrients to keep a tree healthy so much more likely the problems are elsewhere.

That appears to be a very small pot for quite a large tree. I believe that's called shoehorning and I can't imagine it is good for the tree. The shoots I can see seem to indicate it has been growing poorly for some years with abnormally short annual growth.
If you left much older soil on the roots at repot that's also a likely problem as the tree will have so little new soil to grow into in that small pot that the poor, old soil will likely have a much larger influence on roots and therefore health. I know that bare root pine is reputed to be dangerous but so is leaving large quantities of toxic soil in a pot. I know I get far better results when removing the majority of old soil from pines when repotting from poor soils.
I will also assume that for this repot you cut some old soil away leaving a ball of roots and soil then potted up with fresh soil under and around the old root ball. When new soil and old soil are very different in a pot it makes it really difficult for water to move from one soil type to another. I know I've seen cases where the new, outer soil was nicely wet while the old, inner soil was still bone dry and other cases where the situation is reversed and the inner soil cannot dry out properly. (I've done many autopsies on dead trees here over many years)

I would start off by making holes into the old soil part to allow water and air to move through that soil as already suggested by @Paradox and hope that will give you some more time.
At the appropriate time of year repot properly and give the tree a decent sized pot to allow it to recover for a few years.
You are correct, this is what I did to repot.
 

lillarch

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Tree was emergency repotted into 100% pumice. See photos below for rootball with old soil removed and after repot. I am assuming that the white/grey fungus is the healthy one for pines, but would like confirmation that is the case.2A1BC35C-864D-4266-9CF5-7782211C0E61.jpeg
 

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namnhi

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Tree was emergency repotted into 100% pumice. See photos below for rootball with old soil removed and after repot. I am assuming that the white/grey fungus is the healthy one for pines, but would like confirmation that is the case.View attachment 455457
Good to see the healthy white root tips. I can't tell if it is root aphids or mycorrhizal (the pine beneficial fungus). I think you did a good job repotting it now into a 'better' medium. Good luck getting it back to health.
 

Potawatomi13

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Appears to be good down below. Hopefully if no root pruning all "should" be well now;).
 

Paradox

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Good to see the healthy white root tips. I can't tell if it is root aphids or mycorrhizal (the pine beneficial fungus). I think you did a good job repotting it now into a 'better' medium. Good luck getting it back to health.

Yes there were a lot of nice healthy white root tips. Looks like most of them got cut off.

*fingers crossed* hopefully it recovers well.
I think you were right to repot but I'm not sure I'd have been as aggressive with the roots pruning.

I can't tell if the white stuff is mycorrhiza or root aphids for sure but I think it is mycorrhiza

Make sure to watch the weather and give it extra protection if it gets very cold this winter
 
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lillarch

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Yes there were a lot of nice healthy white root tips. Looks like most of them got cut off.

*fingers crossed* hopefully it recovers well.
I think you were right to repot but I'm not sure I'd have been as aggressive with the roots pruning.

I can't tell if the white stuff is mycorrhiza or root aphids for sure but I think it is mycorrhiza

Make sure to watch the weather and give it extra protection if it gets very cold this winter
Just removed old soil and dead roots. Tried to be very careful around the white tips.
 

WavyGaby

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Watching to see how things shake out. FWIW, I think you did the right thing due to the circumstances.
 
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