Pines are evergreen trees with a pyramidal crown at a young age, which becomes umbellate or spherical by old age. Pines can be trees, shrubs, or creeping shrubs.
Likewise, the height can be 2, 20, and 50 m. The root system of pines is developed – pivotal or anchor type. The bark of a pine on a trunk is deeply fissured, red-brown, and it is yellowish or reddish with thinly flaky on the branches. Because of this, you need to tell if a pine tree is drying.
The needles are found on the brachyblasts. According to the needles on a shoot, the pine plant come in three types: double, three-coniferous (Bunge pine), and five-coniferous (Siberian and Japanese white pines).
Pine needles reach a length of 5-9 cm and sit in bunches of 2-5 pieces, surrounded by membranous sheaths. On long shoots, pine leaves are brown and scaly. Sometimes, due to mechanical damage on pine, rosette shoots can be shortened with bundles of wide and short needles.
How To Tell If A Pine Tree Is Dying
1. Discolored needles
This is the main sign that tells you if pine is drying. The pine trees will begin to turn brown, which can happen in parts like the base, middle, or top of a tree. But you have to look at it closely. Examine the pine needles from various parts of a tree and look for brown spots.
2. Needles fall out early
You don’t have to worry about pine needles falling out with the season. Although many pine trees will meet your needs year-round, trees as young as three years old change the color and drop the needles in early fall. The problem begins when the tree drops its needles early.
3. Spots on pinecones
If your pinecones have small black spots, then the tree has fungal disease. Also, this disease can cause the needles to turn brown, so it is best to inspect the pinecones once you notice any discoloration in the needles.
4. Peeling bark
There can be a small part in the pine bark that peels off. This should not be a significant problem. Sometimes animals, like woodpeckers, can do this in small parts of the tree. Nevertheless, if you see that a lot of bark is peeling over large areas, it is sure that something is wrong.
5. Weak spots or broken spots
The pines must support the weight of the branches without any problem. While it is common for the tree to fall off a branch now and then, especially during a thunderstorm, it should not fall off very often.
Certain fungal diseases can affect the integrity of the tree. Branches can break, hang at different angles, and fall, which can be a safety risk.
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How To Grow The Pine Tree
In nature, pine trees reproduce generatively (by seeds). It is possible to dig a young tree in the forest and plant it in the country, but the wild culture has almost no chance of taking root.
Instead, you can take a seed and grow a tree in a pot and then transplant it to a chosen location on the site. This article will tell you how to grow a pine tree from seeds and give recommendations for preparing seeds and caring for a young tree.
1. Preparing for landing
To grow pine at home, you can buy ready-made soil for conifers in the store or make a soil mixture yourself. In the second case, you need to mix turf with sand and peat and add dry needles to this mixture to get a loose substrate.
It is imperative to carry out disinfection. Scald the ground with boiling water or pour it with a solution of potassium permanganate. If you have a microwave oven, you can put soil in it for 20 minutes, which will destroy harmful microflora.
2. Seed selection and preparation
The seed retains the characteristics of the mother plant. As a result of sowing, a seedling grows only with basic species properties. This should be considered if you want to grow pine from a forested cone and buy ready-made seeds.
For the same reason, it is recommended to choose seeds from different trees simultaneously to get a plant that is suitable for the external description in the future.
There are three ways to prepare seeds. This includes keeping the seeds at freezing temperatures for 2.5 months before planting.
First, you need to sterilize a glass jar in the oven, cool, pour seeds into it, close the lid, and then put it in the freezer.
You can also prepare a mixture of sawdust and wet sand, mix it with seeds, pour everything together into a container, cover, and place it in the basement of a summer cottage or a private house.
3. Sowing of seeds
When growing pine from seeds, deep containers are better suited, at the bottom of which drainage is placed so that the water does not stagnate.
The prepared soil is poured so that it does not reach the edges of the pot by 2-3 cm. Seeds are laid out on the soil surface and sprinkled with a layer of earth 2 cm thick. Water the soil abundantly and cover with foil.
Further actions depend on the season in which the seeds are germinated. If in the fall, the containers are lowered into the cellar until spring, regularly ventilating the room. Also, if in spring, then the seed pots are placed in a warm place for germination.
To grow pine from seeds, it is essential to maintain the air temperature within +22 to +40 degrees, to prevent waterlogging and drying out of the soil.
If these conditions are met, the first shoots will sprout in 2-4 weeks. The film cover is removed from the sprouts are pecked, and the containers are placed in a lighted place.
Conclusion
Pines are evergreen trees with many species. Young pine trees require special care and need strict protection from animals and damage from sunlight for some years.
Once set in, the pines will grow for decades. Try to grow pine from seed only if you set yourself by purchasing the right seeds. Sometimes pine trees may die, and with this article, you have everything you need to know.