Sap seeping from trunk of Japanese. Red Pine

[AndyC]

Hi.
My friend has a Japanese Red Pine that has sap seeping from the trunk. Needles above appear to be dieing.
Anyone experienced this?
This has happened before and after removing the bark, the wood was soft. This was removed to hard wood and painted with steriheal?
Any ideas of what it is and treatment options.

[shibui]

I don't think I have experienced anytjing that sounds like this and have not heard of others similar.
Photos are always a good start as we may see something you and your friend have not noticed.

I have lost a few older red pines but they probably died of root rot. It appears red pine is much more susceptible than many other species. All the trees that died here had not been repotted for some years so I guess the soil mix deteriorates and compromises the roots.

[AndyC]

Hi Neil (ShiBui)
Thanks for you input. I have attached some pictures, however, not sure if they are any use.

[treeman]

I don't like the sound of that. It won't hurt the tree if you take a chisel and do some gouging and try to trace the source. Could be an infection (bad) or and injury (not bad) What are we looking at in the first pic? By the look of the soil surface, you are over watering. Red pines like it dry for most of the time. Even though this tree looks like it is grafted onto black pine. The needles also look very weak. You may have root rot. I would consider an emergency re-pot at the end of this month into a SMALLER pot (preferably unglazed terra cotta) for at least one season. Loosening up the compacted ''soil'' under the trunk and around the old roots ball will be paramount. Sometimes with pines that have not been repotted properly for a number of years, this area becomes the seat of infection due to lack of air and removing this old soil without touching the newer outer roots much and working coarse sand into and under the nebari will result in a miraculous return of health. But you need to really work to get all the old crap out from around the old roots and under the trunk. That means working with the tree upside down.