Brown in January - Ask Extension
We planted our trees in June of 2013. They did great until January at which time they turned brown. We are near Yellowstone so temps drop to 30 below....
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Brown in January #184722
Asked May 23, 2014, 7:56 PM EDT
We planted our trees in June of 2013. They did great until January at which time they turned brown. We are near Yellowstone so temps drop to 30 below. We are at an elevation of 7000'. We were assured that they would do well in our region but obviously they did not. They are showing signs of green but we don't know what to do? Are they dying and we need to pull them or do we let them be? We are not sure what the problem might be?
Fremont County Idaho
Expert Response
Sorry, but I need more information. What kind of trees are they? Where are they planted (description of site).
Thanks,
That would be helpful, huh! I'm so sorry about that. Pinus flexilis "Vanderwolf". We planted them in an open area in front of our cabin where they are exposed to everything, 3 grouped together on a berm and one approx 50' away by itself in a little lower area. They are about 4' tall. We receive quite a lot of snow in our area so they were mostly covered by the snow (which we thought might have actually protected them?). They were green until January. Up until then we hadn't received a lot of snow but the temps had dropped to -30 F in Dec. In Jan the weather turned and we rec'd 3'-4' of snow. I've attached a photo. I took this the first day that we returned. By the 3rd day we thought that we could see a little more green on the inside of the trees. It is hard to see, but there is a little green on the inside down towards the bottom. Thank you for any insight you can give.
Thanks for the additional information. You are correct that these trees should be hardy for your area. Many times nurseries have a one-year warranty on their plants, so you may want to explore that option. If they are alive, you should be seeing new growth coming from the buds at the tips of the branches (as opposed to the interior base). If there is none, they are probably dead.
There are a couple of possibilities as to what happened. If the weather changes abruptly enough (say from lows in the 20's-30's to sub-zero, it can damage any plant - regardless of how hardy it is. It can be worse if there is no snow cover and the roots get really cold (you are correct that snow actually protects the plant). It is also worse with newly planted trees that are not fully established. If you are seeing green growth near the base of the plant, that would suggest that region was protected by the snow. But, that won't restore the upper portion of the tree.
According to climate data from West Yellowstone there were low temperatures in the teens in early November followed by a drop to -20 on Nov 22. This was followed by lows near zero followed by a drop to -31 on Dec 4. Snow depths at that time ranged from 10" on Nov 22 to 18" on Dec 4. While those are dramatic drops, I'm not sure if they were enough to cause this kind of damage. Another indicator of cold injury would be to cut a twig off and see if the wood is a dark color or a nice healthy looking white. If it is dark, it is probably cold damage. If it has been killed by winter injury there is nothing you can do except pursue the warranty angle.
Another possibility includes drying out during the winter. Sometimes when the soil is frozen but the needles are warm, pines will lose water and dry out because no water can be brought up from the roots. But, this would typically show more damage on the south side of the tree rather than the whole thing.
That is about all I can think of that would cause such abrupt and complete damage. Other things to consider are chemicals (herbicides) or mice (girdling around the base of the tree). Sorry I don't have better news. It sounds like you did everything correctly.
There are a couple of possibilities as to what happened. If the weather changes abruptly enough (say from lows in the 20's-30's to sub-zero, it can damage any plant - regardless of how hardy it is. It can be worse if there is no snow cover and the roots get really cold (you are correct that snow actually protects the plant). It is also worse with newly planted trees that are not fully established. If you are seeing green growth near the base of the plant, that would suggest that region was protected by the snow. But, that won't restore the upper portion of the tree.
According to climate data from West Yellowstone there were low temperatures in the teens in early November followed by a drop to -20 on Nov 22. This was followed by lows near zero followed by a drop to -31 on Dec 4. Snow depths at that time ranged from 10" on Nov 22 to 18" on Dec 4. While those are dramatic drops, I'm not sure if they were enough to cause this kind of damage. Another indicator of cold injury would be to cut a twig off and see if the wood is a dark color or a nice healthy looking white. If it is dark, it is probably cold damage. If it has been killed by winter injury there is nothing you can do except pursue the warranty angle.
Another possibility includes drying out during the winter. Sometimes when the soil is frozen but the needles are warm, pines will lose water and dry out because no water can be brought up from the roots. But, this would typically show more damage on the south side of the tree rather than the whole thing.
That is about all I can think of that would cause such abrupt and complete damage. Other things to consider are chemicals (herbicides) or mice (girdling around the base of the tree). Sorry I don't have better news. It sounds like you did everything correctly.
Thank you for your quick response. We've already inquired about a warranty and were informed that they don't honor warranties. Obviously we won't purchase any trees from them in the future. We haven't used any chemicals around any of them but I will be checking out the mice situation. They are terrible up there but I hadn't noticed any evidence of them around the trees. We will be sure to check out your suggestion of the cold injury. Sounds as if that is most likely what happened. Thank you again for your help.
