A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Loblolly Pine

Here's a few photos of the pine tree that my daughter brought home from school in the spring. It went from a "twig" to a "stick"! It's actually growing ok.. it's the first thing I'd ever planted, and I really didn't know what I was doing. We used a pinwheel stick to tie it to, because it was all floppy. It was more roots than twig..lol. Anyways, there's some stuff on it, and wondering what it is? It's been there awhile..






Meg

Well its pretty hard to tell but my guess is mites, but could also be scale. I would say this tho... trees as a normal course of events interact with a wide variety of pathogens and pest generally without ill effects to the tree. As long as the plant is doing well I would not jump to a "cure", in my experence the "cure" often causes more long term significant problems than just letting nature run. For more information uyou may want to check out some information relating to Integrated Pest Management. Good luck.

Meg,

It almost looks like spittlebug. I can't make out if it's wet and foamy or dry and cottony.

Either way, I'm with my pal Arcto, here. I'd just leave it alone. It doesn't seem to be affecting the health of the tree.

P.S.- I have a few loblolly on my property, and they are very bendy in their early years. A good snow will double them over. You may want to stake it up once it's in the ground, until it seems sturdy enough to go it alone.

I see them growing in my woods.They are truely awesome...course the ones I see I bet are 100-150 years old .isone huge one back about 3 miles behind house & I swear the trunk is as wide as a car& its limbs are real thick.

so tell us how your daughter come into growing it?from seed?sapling?do tell.WE ALL WANNA KNOW

Well, she got the tree around earth day last school year. The FFA high school kids bagged up the tiny trees in those orange newspaper plastic bags. They were more root than tree! The tree was a mere twig, very thin, barely any needles, and very floppy! I had NO IDEA how to care for/plant a tree, and I had NO IDEA how big this loblolly pine could get. We used a pinwheel stick to stake it up, and now, it's thicker around and taller than the stick! It's only been in the ground since April! 5 solid months I think, and it looks pretty good.

Meg