Is this needle blight?

[MichaelS]

I would definitely NOT cut anything off. This will only serve to weaken the tree. You can spray for fungus but personally I have never seen fungal infection on pine needles here. Maybe it's different in the US.
If it still has original soil deep in the root ball, this is most probably the problem. Although you may have a good well drained soil surrounding it, the old soil will dictate how much water remains around the roots in it because of it's finer particles. In fact it may never dry out and could set up root rot in that area. Notice that the outer branches which correspond to the outer radial roots are quite ok but the top of the tree which corresponds to the roots beneath the trunk is affected. It is most important that you remove the old soil as soon as possible (now) because the problem will only get worse over summer. I water my white pines as much as the blacks but the soil particles are twice the size and mainly mineral. It's not how much water you give it, it's how fast it drains and dries out and this is regulated by pot size and particle size and the material used. I have found a ''drainage'' layer on almost half the depth of the pot is appreciated by JWP. Grafted white pines (on BP roots) can be treated just like Black pine.

 

[justBonsai]

I would definitely NOT cut anything off. This will only serve to weaken the tree. You can spray for fungus but personally I have never seen fungal infection on pine needles here. Maybe it's different in the US.
If it still has original soil deep in the root ball, this is most probably the problem. Although you may have a good well drained soil surrounding it, the old soil will dictate how much water remains around the roots in it because of it's finer particles. In fact it may never dry out and could set up root rot in that area. Notice that the outer branches which correspond to the outer radial roots are quite ok but the top of the tree which corresponds to the roots beneath the trunk is affected. It is most important that you remove the old soil as soon as possible (now) because the problem will only get worse over summer. I water my white pines as much as the blacks but the soil particles are twice the size and mainly mineral. It's not how much water you give it, it's how fast it drains and dries out and this is regulated by pot size and particle size and the material used. I have found a ''drainage'' layer on almost half the depth of the pot is appreciated by JWP. Grafted white pines (on BP roots) can be treated just like Black pine.

If you didn't notice that comment on cutting off buds was an April fools joke.....
While there is some old soil in the center it is not so wet and compacted as to result in severe rot. The reason I didn't remove the old soil last season was because the roots were very entangled with it being in a small nursery can for quite some time. To bare-root the tree and remove all that old soil was to risk killing the tree. People keep on saying here that trees will rot/go ill/die in organic soil but trees grow in that stuff all the time. Granted if it is constantly wet for a long extended period of time that may be an issue but my watering hasn't been that heavy. As far as the browning needles go it is primarily on the side shown in the picture. The top actually growing fine--just a few needles that are yellow/brown. The rest of the tree is a nice green color. By no means is my tree vigorous right now, but its not dying or declining rapidly. I do intend to remove the central old soil later but doing so now probably would do more damage than good to the tree. I intend on doing half bare-roots over 2 seasons but I need to make sure the tree is healthy enough to handle it. What I may do to temporarily improve aeration and drainage in the very center of the root ball is to poke some holes with chopsticks and shove pumice bits down it. I've done this before with a compacted hinoki and it actually worked decently. That way I can flush fresh water through the center of the root ball without any severe work.

At the moment my plan is:
1) to apply copper biweekly and applications of thiomyl (precaution against potential root rot).
2) Adjust watering plan for better root conditions
3) Hope for strong growth
4) If and when the tree shows vigor I will go forward and get it in entirely new soil.

As you can see its not that bad, but I'm trying to take precaution against potential arising problems:

 

[bonsaibp]

@Brian Van Fleet
Man I don't know where these typos are coming from. Probably just too tired in the morning.

How much time typically passes between your waterings for jwp that allows the soil to dry adequately? I'll try to figure out a good routine but my aim is to let the outer new soil dry as much without becoming bone dry between waterings. At the moment the tree gets watered every other day moderately. Should I be more concerned about over or under watering more? The tree was very root bound last season so I did a moderate repotting into a good mix--I didn't remove all off the original soil as I had thought that to be too aggressive for the tree. Since the very core of the root mass still is made up of an organic medium and is denser than the outside won't the center of the root mass actually receive less water and thus dry faster?

My current plan is to treat with copper for the possible blight and thiomyl fungicide for potential root rot. Unfortunately I cannot check my trees in person right now so I'll have to do watering adjustments in a week or 2. Ideally the tree regains vigor and colonizes the new soil so I can get a vigorous season next year .

Chances of ever having vigorous growth here are nil. Not trying to rain on your parade but they just don't work here and the longer its here the weaker it'll get.

 

[justBonsai]

Chances of ever having vigorous growth here are nil. Not trying to rain on your parade but they just don't work here and the longer its here the weaker it'll get.

Well, just as strong as I can make it work. There is no sense selling it now or throwing away the tree.

 

[Djtommy]

one of my white pines has a similar problem,small buds and 2015needles not good color.
likely the problem at least for me was not enough water, i had a few times that they i couldnt water them for few days in a row end of summer to fall.
mine was in high need of a repot aswell and should have done it last year.. i did it yesterday, and noticed that the middle was still dry even i watered it well the day before and it had rained in the morning before repot. no rootrot at all though, so yeah white pines dont like to be wet but need to make sure you still water them well with good drainage.
i pretty much barerooted mine and put in a bigger pot so now letting it rest..

 

[justBonsai]

Hard to tell in this picture but color is definitely improving and tree is shoving growth everywhere. The real challenge will be to see how it fares once high summer temps hit. I'll try to update by then.

I've given it biweekly copper as recommended as well as a thiomyl based fungicide--the same stuff clearys 3366 is based off of.

 

[bonsaibp]

Hard to tell in this picture but color is definitely improving and tree is shoving growth everywhere. The real challenge will be to see how it fares once high summer temps hit. I'll try to update by then.

I've given it biweekly copper as recommended as well as a thiomyl based fungicide--the same stuff clearys 3366 is based off of.

You should really read the labels-don't know what you used but the Cleary's label is pretty adamant about not using with copper or shortly after using copper, it reacts badly.

 

[justBonsai]

You should really read the labels-don't know what you used but the Cleary's label is pretty adamant about not using with copper or shortly after using copper, it reacts badly.

Well so far nothing bad has happened.
I've only given it the thiomyl twice and copper biweekly as mentioned. Never at the same time. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

oops, I just hit my pines with Cleary's 3336, and followed a day later with 1/2 teaspoon per gallon Phyton 27, a copper ''soap''. Hopefully the copper was dilute enough that I don't have problems. I need to go back and read the labels. That is something I preach, and don't always follow.