White Spruce

Description:

Approximately 17ft tall. Green with a blue tinge. Healthy appearance and full growth up top. Lower area of tree has a lot of death and/or browning of foliage. Bark appeared very healthy.

Habitat:

Open area, not close to roads. Tree is in a sunlit area with another white spruce of similar condition. Some opportunities for small amounts of runoff.

Notes:

Lower area of tree may not have got enough water to compensate for the extremely hot season. As a result, the bottom needles die off in an effort to hydrate the upper section of the tree. Because of the condition of the bark being very good I do not believe this is a result of pests or infection. Because winter weather is near and the plant may be dormant soon, reduced watering may cause the dead needles to fall off sooner. This can be helpful to give new growth in the next season a chance to replace the dead growth of the current year. References: http://www.torontomastergardeners.ca/ask... http://blog.davey.com/2016/09/reasons-wh...