All the needles on my black spruce tree are brown - Ask Extension
For Arbor Day 2017, my daughter brought home from school a black spruce sapling. It spent a few months in the refrigerator until I decided where to p...
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All the needles on my black spruce tree are brown #618449
Asked March 24, 2020, 9:32 AM EDT
For Arbor Day 2017, my daughter brought home from school a black spruce sapling. It spent a few months in the refrigerator until I decided where to plant it. Since we live in a townhouse with no yard, I planted it in a 10" pot on our west facing deck. It did just fine for a few years but last spring/summer the needles started turning brown and about half fell off. The branches are still pliable so I'm sure it's still alive but I'd like to figure out what is wrong with it so it's healthy. (I have no intention of having this pot be its permanent home but I'm hoping to keep it this way for a few more years until we have a proper yard. My daughter is now in 6th grade and so proud that we still have her tree.)
Any suggestions to help me figure out what is wrong with the tree and/or how to treat it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Cathy
Dakota County Minnesota
Expert Response
Oh gosh, I hate to say it, but it looks pretty gone to me. The pot it's in is too small and if it wasn't covered over the winter, it could have frozen all the way through, killing the roots. You could try repotting it in a much larger pot with new soil and an appropriate fertilizer for the plant. I will include a link below to the U of MN's page on fertilizers for evergreens.
https://extension.umn.edu/trees-and-shrubs/fertilizing-evergreens
https://extension.umn.edu/trees-and-shrubs/fertilizing-evergreens
