Pine Pitch Causes

Zacchaeus · Mar 25, 2016

Pinus strobus, decline in nearly entire canopy, has resin pitch exuding from the bark. What's your first instinct about cause?? No visible beetle exit holes…(yet)

Gorman · Mar 25, 2016

A lot of pines in my area were really drought stressed last summer and had similar signs. How dry is your area?

Zacchaeus · Mar 25, 2016

Indiana Zone 6 here. We had some bad droughts, '12 being the worst, but last 2 years were bad also. This tree is in a line with about 8 others; I removed one last fall infested with pine sawyer beetles. There are now two trees in the line that are showing light green needles with the look of decline. The planting site ensures the trees get water when it rains but I don't think it's over-watering; they are roughly 15 years old, maybe 20. I suspect beetles brought on by tree stress (it's a VERY nice yard, too nice, with evident compaction of course) but no insect signs, only symptoms of pitch on lower 4' of trunk and the light needle color and 'wilting look'… Am I missing something?

flyingsquirrel25 · Mar 25, 2016

White pine blister rust maybe? Looks like a slight girdling of the trunk around the effected area. There must be Current or Goose berry shrubs some where near buy to allow the infection though.

KTSmith · Mar 25, 2016

Pitching is a pretty non-specific symptom, but WPBR would be a good place to start. There is a lot of information online on this well-studied disease, but you might want to start with:

http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/fungi/Basidiomycetes/Pages/WhitePine.aspx

And although a bit technical, here is a more local report: http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PDIS-04-13-0442-PDN

TimBr · Mar 25, 2016

Zacchaeus said:
Indiana Zone 6 here. We had some bad droughts, '12 being the worst, but last 2 years were bad also. This tree is in a line with about 8 others; I removed one last fall infested with pine sawyer beetles. There are now two trees in the line that are showing light green needles with the look of decline. The planting site ensures the trees get water when it rains but I don't think it's over-watering; they are roughly 15 years old, maybe 20. I suspect beetles brought on by tree stress (it's a VERY nice yard, too nice, with evident compaction of course) but no insect signs, only symptoms of pitch on lower 4' of trunk and the light needle color and 'wilting look'… Am I missing something?

Hey, Zacchaeus! Welcome to the TreeBuzz forum! This is an interesting thread you've started.

I hope you stay awhile; I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Tim

Zacchaeus · Mar 25, 2016

TimBr said:
Hey, Zacchaeus! Welcome to the TreeBuzz forum! This is an interesting thread you've started.

I hope you stay awhile; I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Tim

Thanks Tim! I'm here to stay. I have heard of this site for a while and have read posts before while doing 'research', and finally decided to join up. I look forward to the networking with fellow men of the trees….