Hail damage on pine

[jevanlewis]

I know that many of you experience hail much more often, and with greater severity, than I do. My question about hail relates to needle cast. Last summer, I was relatively diligent in preventative treatments for needle cast (alternating copper and Daconil, Bonide Infuse systemic, trying to avoid wet foliage, especially once trees were shaded). One evening, there was a pretty significant hail storm. Immediately after, there were yellow spots on many of the needles on most of my pines. However, these yellow spots looked very similar to my understanding of how needle cast looks when it first starts. Also, since I didn't do my preventative spraying in late summer when the hail hit, I didn't want to completely rule out needle cast.

As the season progressed, the spots didn't progress from the bright yellow to the darker brown banding, and there wasn't any needle death. I didn't know if this was because it was physical damage rather than needle cast, or if it was just a very mild case of needle cast. So be safe, I have been more diligent this year, in particular doing a second round of systemic and preventative spraying in the second half of summer during the second flush from my JBPs and JRPs.

Just today, there was a hail store, although it was less severe than last years. It defoliated a lot of needles, and I found similar yellow spots to what I saw last year. At this point, I believe that this year's spots, as well as those from last year, are probably physical damage, rather than needle cast. Luckily, these trees are in development, but in the future, I definitely will need some sort of protection from hail.

Is anyone able to share their similar experiences?

This year's yellow spots. Last year, the spots covered entire needles.


Defoliation.

 

[Paradox]

The thing with needle cast is that it infects the needles one full year before you ever see it on the needles.
The damage on that needle in the first picture does not look like what I know to be needle cast. Looks more like physical damage to me as well

 

[Dav4]

I'd think in a relatively dry climate like Utah, needle cast would be low on the list of health issues affecting your pines. Moving from GA to MI 3 years ago has greatly decreased the frequency of fungal issues I'm seeing with m y trees... and MI is still quite humid during dog days of summer, but nothing like the SE.