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bonhe

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What kind of problem does this black pine have?
p/s: you will get the answer in 2 or 3 days :)
Bonhe
 

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Without further information, I can only hazard a guess.



Possibly pine needle miner larvae, but the whole needles are brown, possibly needle cast fungus.




Will
 
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Smoke

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Overdose of humic acid
 

Vance Wood

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Overdose of humic acid

Can you elaborate? You seem to state this matter of factly and I am wondering if this is from experience? If so what difficulties exist in humic acid and what do you recommend for application of this stuff?
 

Smoke

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Can you elaborate? You seem to state this matter of factly and I am wondering if this is from experience? If so what difficulties exist in humic acid and what do you recommend for application of this stuff?



At this point some people by virtue of my talking about it and writing about it have started to use humic acid as a plant stimulator. I have had very good results and have had a few mishaps, (learning dosage). I have had some junipers that have shown the same signs of overdose. I have very few pines at the moment ( 3 black pines), When I have dosed with humates on the pines I have had very good results. The juipers will show this same effect by just killing very small precision areas within a branch of foliage pad. Seems that it has snuffed out a group of feeder roots or something. The problem will usually correct itself if I wash clear water over the pot for a few minutes and shade the tree for a day or two. By weeks end green tips will start to grow in the effected areas.

Like anything we do in bonsai if a little is good then more will certainly be better. With humates it is the opposite. Small doses kept up on a good schedule along wth low NPK organic fertilizer and you will be sitting pretty.
 
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This is caused by an insect, you can tell by the localized and random structure of the browning needles. Overfertilization, underfertilization and over and under watering cause a uniform from oldest to newest (usually) leaf dessication. This is tree problem diagnosis 101.

Fungal problems are also more uniform so we can rule this out since the rest of the needles look good.
 

Mortalis

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You guys who can see in all colors are lucky. Easier for you to tell when something is wrong. I can't see my trees changes in color unless its to a much lighter shade.
 

TimD

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I was thinking borers as well but have limited experience with them..knock on wood...
From my experience they already had the candle drilled out long before the needles were ready to move and therefor they didn't or moved in little sections. If this is a borer attack they are far less efficient than the ones I had.
 

bonhe

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Hi Will, good guess. Pine needle cast has a different sign at first.

Hi Smoke, I agree with FourMileMarc. It isn't a sign of humic acid overdosage.

Hi Treebeard, you're correct.

Hi FourMileMarc, fungal infection can be seen scatterly on the same shoot.

Hi TimD, if you didn't recognize the problem soon enough, you're in big trouble.

I' ll tell you what I did when I saw this sign on one of my landscape JBP. I cut this shoot and then brown needles removed with help of pick-up. Using a magnifier, I can see some tiny cloudy yellow drops (pic. 1 and 2). Those are pine larvae's feces. They were removed, then a small track was seen. A live larva's head seen in pic. 3. It had a cell extraction with help of pick-up and was seen in pic. 4.
In pic. 5, the dead larva was found on other JBP even though it didn't show any pine borer's activity. I prophylactically sprayed all of my black pine trees with insecticide.

p/s: watch out for another thread which will show you how to approach brown needles

Bonhe
 

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Dav4

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Good eye, Bonhe. I've never had these on bonsai/pre-bonsai (as far as I know), but they've damaged some of my landscaping trees. Thanks for the info and pics. I'll be waiting for your next thread.

Dave
 

bonhe

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Thanks for your link Ianb.

Hi Dave, thanks for your kind comment.
Bonhe
 

waltr1

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Thanks for the timely post and links. I just found this problem on a landscape JBP in my yard. I cut off the infested shoots and dissected to find these:
 

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Went hunting for those on Ponderosa pine today... found evidence... but not them. lil buggers...:mad:
 

Si Nguyen

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Cool thread! Nice macro photos of the damm bugs! I'd better take a look at some my my pines.
Thanks Bonhe.
 

bonhe

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Cool thread! Nice macro photos of the damm bugs! I'd better take a look at some my my pines.
Thanks Bonhe.

Hi Si, I wish I had macro system. I had to take a picture via a magnifier, can you believe it? :)
Bonhe
 

bonhe

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I have to say Neem oil is the best organic antiinsect agent :)
I had been using Neem oil prophylactically since the end of winter up to 2 weeks ago. I sprayed diluted neem oil on all of my trees every 2 weeks. Result: I didn't see any sign of aphid, or pine borer activity so far. So, it's safe to say Neem oil is the best since it's organic as well. Bonhe
 

Klytus

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Yesterday i was picking off these miniscule yellow caterpillars from the apexes of my baby Pines,last year i noticed this wooly material but after a cursory inspection thought nothing more of it.

It was only earlier this year that i examined these coccoons and found greenish caterpillars had overwintered,the fiends.

They are attacking my Golden Larch this year to but have to spin fully grown leaves together as most of the tips were pinched before they hatched..

My other Conifers are uninfested.

One good thing was that the seedlings that survived had their vigour redistributed,something i would not have done or if i did so then it may have been at the wrong time.
 
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