Black Knot Disease -   Does your tree or your neighbors tree look like this.  Click on the link to learn more.

                

 

DAMAGE BY RABBITS, MICE OR VOLES - Unfortunately rabbits and mice or voles have not enjoyed the prolonged snow and are looking for food. They have been busy on the nursery and in homeowner yards, eating the bark on the trees.  If your tree looks like this, and is eaten around the entire trunk, it may not survive.  The bark and transplant tissue (phloem) which carries the nutrients from the leaves to the roots have been damaged.    One method that may save your tree is by applying Lac Balsam to the area.  It works like a rubber skin and seals the cambium on the tree so the nutrients can flow again.  For $12.95 for a 150 gr. tube, it is well worth trying out.

                                          

 

 

FALL NEEDLE SHED - Yellowing of needles in the fall is a normal occurence for evergreen trees.  Conifers do not keep their growth of needles on their inside branches  and shed them naturally in the fall.  The discoloration, which affects the older needles close to the trunk occurs in late August and can continue until freeze up.   The amount of shedding can be greater if the tree has been placed under stress caused by droughts, flooding or newly dug trees.   These needles are not replaced and this is why evergreens are bare of needles near the trunk and there is usually a carpet of needles under the tree.