Tree problem

[bayjoe]

My Australia pines and blue spruce trees are dying and i don't know why. The Australian pines are dying from the top down. The blue spruce are loosing all there needles.
I have fertilized and watered the crap out of them. I have sprayed them with fungicide and sprayed them for bugs
Can anybody tell me what is wrong with them and how to cure them before they die.
Any help would be appreciated

[quilbilly]

"Water the crap out of them" (????)- Most pines and spruces (except Sitka spruce) don't like "wet feet" in my experience. Drainage is important. What is the soil like near the roots about a foot down? If you are watering heavily, the water has to have some place to go. Sitka spruce do fine around wetlands but even they do not do well in swamps. From your picture and description, it sounds like the problem is the roots are not functioning well.

[ShooterAZ]

Could be Bark Beetles. We've had a dramatic kill off of pines and spruce here in northern AZ due to the drought weakening the trees, and then the beetles taking advantage of it.

[Mal Paso]

Borers will kill the tips like that. See if you have an Ag Department or forestry people in your area.

[NY_Treeguy]

Trees typically die from the top down due to water issues or borers. The water issues can be drought or also root diseases or vascular wilt diseases. Most needle diseases kill trees from the bottom up. In the NE US we have a relatively new problem with a rust/false needlecast disease. Fungicide treatments work but requires 3-10 treatments a year applied at the correct time.

I suggest that you contact a local arborist. Often foresters are not well acquainted with problems on landscape trees. Go to treesaregood.org and you can find an ISA Certified Arborist in your area.

Angelo
Owner CGL Arbor Services
Everyone Needs an Arborist

[Minerat]

Bark Beatle will not hurt Blue spruce or Austrian pine. Here in Colorado the Ponderosa, and Lodgepole take the pine beatle beating and the Douglas fir are affected by the spruce bud worm. Symptoms of the bud worm are the new growth buds of a year class turn brown like chocolate milk color. The doug fir gradually die from the lack of new growth. The pine beatle will leave pitch tubes on the trunks that look like Little yellow/red rosin blobs all over the trunk. Those usually start to appear by mid September and the Trees will appear to die all at once starting in April and not from the top down. More then likely you have over watered and fertilized them. The Blue Spruce are more water tolerant but like north facing slopes where it is cooler. Austrian's are not native to CO so don't know much about them. Call your local NRCS office and see if you can get one of the Extension agents to come out and look at them for you.

Country in background looks like area around Rye or Colorado City if so try the Turkey Creek office 719-744-5475 otherwise use Googlefoo to search NRCS then the closest town to you (like nrcs wrey). Good luck

[Finster101]

In Florida the Australians are considered an invasive. As wet as it gets here in the summer it’s hard to believe you could over water the Australian. I can’t say anything about the others. I’m not a trained arborists just what I see around me. There are a lot of Australian pines all around my property.

[bayjoe]

Minerat= You got good eye for area- I live in Colorado City
Our house is on a small limestone caprock. the ground is extremely hard to dig a hole. But is full of cracks that the water goes straight down
I tried talking to Forest Service in Pueblo and they only talk to you over the phone or speaker phone at the door of the office. They will either not leave home or come out of the office.
But my trees aren't the only ones that look like this. This is happening in patches all thru the mountains