Any thoughts.

[Leafguy]

This should be obvious. But I had 3 arbs over the last 3 days give 2 different answers. So now I'm questioning my thoughts.

 

[Frax]

possibly salt damage? does it fit with the case - driveway, near busy road maybe?

 

[rfwoodvt]

any pic of the whole tree avail? I'm inclined to lean towards environmental perhaps salt or winter injury as Frax suggested.

It seems to uniform on each needle for for me to start looking at t to be biotic causes yet.

 

[Leafguy]

Sorry no pic of the whole tree.

It is near a road, but low volume traffic and no salting of the roads.

The damage stretches up the tree from the lowest point to about 3/4 the way. A lot of the damage starts on the inside of the branches and spreads outwards.

As well the damage is localized on the south facing side of the tree. The 4 other trees behind have no damage. The damage tree looks like it protects the others from changing environment conditions. This would make me lean toward winter damage. But the fact that the damage starts on the inside and moves out, make me think it's a combination of things.

 

[Leafguy]

Could vehicle exhaust do this kind of damage? I've been looking for example pics but can't find any.

 

[pcarborist]

Leafguy, when was the spruce planted?

 

[roxy]

If there's an outdoor light or exhaust heat source, it can cause that sort of damage when the tissue heats up in the winter cold adn then freezes when the temps drop...

 

[Leafguy]

Pcarborist, Not sure when the tree was planted. About 24"DBH and 45ft tall.

 

[nuthin_special]

I'd bet on winter dessication. I see it here on many conifers. Of course, with just an image of one twig there could be many causes possible.

The red pines here always start to show these symptoms when the temperatures get up above zero (32 in american) for a couple of weeks. Only the red pines that are stressed. Either growing in a bad spot, too close together etc etc.