Spharopsis sapinea

[Rowena]

I have a very large old Austrian pine just diagnosed as having sphaerosis sapinea . Any advice on how to mitigate its impact? So far, the ends of mostly lower branches have died, but with the dry weather, signs of changing needle colour are appearing even in the crown. There are many cones and needles underneath, will removing these help reduce ongoing infection? I am responsible for a large number of trees but have no professional tree background, and there is a very small budget for ongoing tree management.

[Andrew Gale]

A healthy rooting environment will help maintain a healthy tree; you could start by decompacting the rooting area and placing well rotted wood chip mulch to aid moisture retention and increase nutrients etc passing int the soil.

 

Stress will predispose the tree to the condition so it's important to maintain a stress free zone as much as is practicable; it's been very dry recently coming out of an excessively wet period resulting in ideal conditions for the fungus.

[Rowena]

There is already a woodchip mulch underneath- put there last autumn on top of old needles after removing nettles and elder. The earth is a fine clay. Should we water- there has been no rain for the last few weeks, and the earth is extremely dry . should we also remove the newly dropped cones and needles? I am assuming we remove the newly dead branches?