White Fir Tree

hdecker

Five years ago I moved into a home with a white fir tree about 20 feet tall. The tree was surrounded by lawn and it was so dense that you couldn't see through it. I removed the grass with a sod cutter and some of the roots were disturbed to build a near by brick patio. Since then, the needle density has dropped dramatically. The tips have turned brown the last two winters. It continues to push out new growth each year, but is not looking very good. I water around the edge of the canopy with a soaker hose. Is there hope for this tree or will it continue to decline due to all of the disruption?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Eric Frei

Coincidence eh, I just wrote an official report about a group of trees where they intend to scrape 100mm off soil of, I wrote they would die.

I have seen numerous cases of tree deaths from such activity. In fact I have seen one recently performed by council in a park where they scraped the top say 50mm off, put new soil and turfed .... old ironbark tree I think it was died in 8 months.

You have done a very very bad thing for the tree, the older they are the less chance they have.

You might be able to help it though, you need to apply loads of mycorrhizal fungi (it's soluble) along with some organic fertilizer like blood&bone (use a soluble), also add some Seaweed tonic (also soluble) ... water in and mulch over the top as far as you can toward the dripline 2" thick. Keep away from the trunk by say 1'

Can you get some pictures up?

Here's the aerial pictures for the site I was talking about, along the top bar is a timeline and you can go back in time and see the park before, see the work and watch the tree disappear (got cut down) that is at the bottom of the park to the right. April 2010 the work started and by the picture dated March 2011 the tree was removed however it was dead around Christmas time 2010.

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hdecker

Hi Eric,

Thank you for responding to my post. I don't have a picture of the tree right when we moved in, but I've posted three that show the decline. The first was taken a few months after the disruption and the other two were taken yesterday. The span of time is about three years. Seeing the pictures is quite striking. I did mulch around the tree, but when putting in the patio, I noticed that the roots reach far beyond the drip line. Maybe I should have mulched out farther and have been watering out there also? If you think there may be hope for this tree, I will follow your recommendations for helping it and take periodic photos to help me follow any progress. The series of aerial photos you posted the link to where very interesting. When I think of making any dramatic changes in the future I will think of them and of this fir tree experience!

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Eric Frei

You still have a good chance, apply what I said pronto. If you can get soluble silica add that to the mix also.

The patio is far enough away, mulch as wide as you can.

You need to monitor the soil moisture, keep it moist but not wet.

Also do a pH test for peace of mind, test a few spots at various depths up to say 100mm deep.

Also try to prune so that no foliage touches the ground, just with hand snippers and no real crown lifting.

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Brent Ferris

I have to wonder how much hdecker is watering. THe tree looks to be losing needles very fast. All of Eric's advice is valuable - but needs to be implemented yesterday. Get to it and hope for the best,.

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