Yellowing

[Daluke]

Hey guys. Happy new year. A few of my pines have some yellowing tips. Any idea what the problem is?

[Brian]

could be heat scorch, but it wouldn't hurt to buy a box of trace elements and water that in.

[treeman]

I think this is a root issue. Too much water or too much feed both of which can damage root tips.

[Jow]

It looks like only some needles yellowing. Could be the older needles getting ready to drop?

[evan]

After looking at nothing but black pine for the last month, got to agree with Jow. I've found the main difference between yellowing because of disease, and yellowing because of age is the black tip that develops on the needle tip. They should also hurt like hell when you poke yourself with the tip (just to be sure).

[Daluke]

Is definitely only on a few needles.

Should I pluck them?

[treeman]

I don't think it is old needles yellowing (nautrally) for 2 reasons. 1. It's not even mid summer and you should not have needle yellowing this time of year unless something is wrong. And 2, the black tips to the needle is a dead giveaway that it is not normal needle drop but a problem with the roots.

[evan]

Just had Koji Hiramatsu have a look at the photo. He also agrees that it's just old needles. If it was disease, I would expect every needle on the tree to be yellow. It's fine to pluck them off if you want, maybe keep them if you want some buds developing where the needles are.

The black tip is normal for old needles when they begin to yellow.

[treeman]

Just had Koji Hiramatsu have a look at the photo. He also agrees that it's just old needles. If it was disease, I would expect every needle on the tree to be yellow. It's fine to pluck them off if you want, maybe keep them if you want some buds developing where the needles are.

The black tip is normal for old needles when they begin to yellow.

Still disagree. It is not a disease. It is caused by root tip problem. None of my pines are showing old needles now.

[evan]

Even with a root tip problem, it would affect more than a few needles. How the blackening tip correlates to symptoms of root tip problems doesn't make much scientific sense. I'll reiterate my previous comment and say that root problems would affect a larger portion of the tree than just a few needles. So I'll leave it to Daluke to decide who's advice he wants to take.

[anthonyW]

Yellowing before the neck of new open candle would normally indicate last season or two old needle/leaf which is find remove when cut new open candle approximate length,yellowing tip of new growth across the board usually indicates over feed or lack of trace elements,yellowing random on new growth is a good indicator for stress maybe previous improper watering habits ie over watering(roots),stress will come out at times from old habits and current,hopefully an old habit and still healthy pine but heed the warning,just a rule of thumb one can never be too ceatain with out looking at roots..cheers

[treeman]

Just to make things clear about the difference between natural ageing and unatural ageing.
Whenever we see blackening on the tip or any other part of a leaf on ANY species of plant. It is a problem of some kind. Not necessarily a major one and not necessarily one that needs immediate treatment. But it is important to be able to distiguish between them. Natural ageing in a leaf always starts with yellowing but them proceeds to browning not blackening. Daluke's pic is not very clear and looking at it more closely the needles could be browning at the tip. Because they are so close to the apex of the branch, I'm still inclined to think there is a problem at the roots. Not all the needle tips will be affected at the same time. Older ones are usually first. Daluke, we need more pics.

The needles below are from a red pine (first) and 3 other black pines. They are either one or two year old needles. They came from very low on a vigorous trees. I had to look hard to find some this time of year.
As you can see they are begining to age. Yellowing followed by browning and drying off. Note also that the yellowing is very gradual not in a definite line (which indicates suddeness) as in Dalukes plant.

021.JPG

[evan]

Saying that blackening of the tip on ANY species of plant is a sign of problems is akin to saying that having a body temperature of less than 37C in ANY species of animal is equal to ill health. How about cactus spikes, they're leaves with black tips.

You can't compare pines with broadleaf plants, they have completely different mechanisms in their internal systems for energy and water management and transport. While blackening on a maple leaf indicates some problem, blackening of the tips on black pine needles seems to be a natural process for old needles (not all the time though, in this instance it is though. This is also different from tree to tree).

Your definition of "natural aging" still doesn't apply to every single plant. There are too many variables to consider with why chloroplast degradation is occurring at the rate it is. While your trees may be going straight from yellow and then brown, I think in Dalukes tree the process is happening at a different rate because of these variables.

I've got many examples here of trees with the exact same old growth habits, but my phones photo size is too big to upload right now.

[Daluke]

It's gotten dark tonight, but I'll definately take a photo in natural light tomorrow. The yellowing is only on one black pine and I have a few. I'm in Melbourne - it's been pretty hot here lately. I water two to three times a day lately given the heat.

[Daluke]

Taken this morning