I got a potted Northern Pine before Christmas and when we moved I had to leave it at my mom's house. Her house is sooooo dry! We picked it up this weekend and she's kept it watered nicely and everything is green on it, but to the touch it is all dried out and brittle. The needles fall right off. Could this be because of the dry house? I've been misting it...but can I do anything to make the plant not be soo brittle??
It sounds like it dried out. Pines lose lots of moiture through their needles.
Theres a product called wilt pruf that may help.
Do you think that just misting it with water for now will do until I can get down the mountain to find the wilt proof???
I'd think its better than nothing.How many needles is it losing?
Jenn,
I found a site that might help somewhat with your problem. While your tree is losing needles from being dry, according to this site, if it's not losing it's needles from the branch tips, it should recover.
http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/HomeTown/Care_PineNeedleLoss.htm Hope this helps.
Wrennie, it only drops the needles when I touch it to see how dry it is. Those poor things are hard as rocks!
MLN, thanks for that link. The tree isn't loosing the new needles on the ends, but those are a little hard as well....which is why I was concerned in the first place.
Turns out i'll be going town the mountain today to go to the pharmacy, so I'm going to stop at Lowes or something and try to find the Wilt Pruf