blue spruce slow growth

treeluver

late last summer a purchesed a 3foot tall healthy looking blue spruce from a greenhouse, it was a potted one, i planted it and kept it well watered, but this spring very few buds actually grew into branches,and most are on the very tip of the tree leaving the bottom with no new growth this year, and the branches that did grow were very short but healthy looking, will the domant buds grow next year after it gets a better root system esablished?

Eric Frei

Well, I'm no spruce expert but am interested.

Any chance of some pictures of what is going on?

Also, did this tree go from greenhouse to outside? If so it could be a little shocked this year.

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treeluver

here are a few pics, the whole tree looks healthy, its gren and no signs of dead branches or needles, but just never put out much a flush of new growth, the new growth is the bright bluish green at the top of the tree, the pot it came in was as big around as the dripline on the base of the tree and almost as deep as the tree is tall and it had healthry root growth when i removed it from the pot, not sure what happened

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TreeSpecialist

Pull the grass away from the tree. Grass has an allelophatic effect (inhibits root growth) on small trees not to mention what mechanical damage happens to small trees with turf up to the trunk.

Leave the entire area beneath the tree either bare - or better yet, mulch with an acidic mulch of some kind. Pine straw would be good.

In the nursery, most places will fertilize the plant with each watering (weak solution of fertilizer - 2 to 5%). A well balanced, organic fertilizer applied once a month would be a good idea.

The first year, new trees will spend most of their energy putting out roots. Don't expect remarkable growth this year.

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treeshaveneeds

It looks like the foliage is green on one side, and blue on the other.

That being so, the water/nutrients aren't getting up on the green side, and I would be inclined to dig into the root ball and check for root strangulation, and if so, correct the problem ASAP!