The Mighty are Fallin'........

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Back in the middle of May, I snapped a couple of photos of our backyard...

It was comical then...
See the distinct green lines?
That's the proof in the pudding that the Scott's fertilizer my hubs puts down actually does what it is intended to do!
We fertilized one part of the yard, but, as you can tell, we didn't fertilize near our row of evergreens. We are minimalists when it comes to using any chemicals around here...
Good old fashioned rain water and the occasional garden hose is how we work the majority of the time...

Nice lush green grass.
Nice lush evergreen trees.


A month later?


Look at the middle tall evergreen...

It's turning brown...



In case you can't see what I'm talking about...

let me give you a close up...



I snapped these photos with my cell phone ~


And you should know - that this very spot was struck by lightning last August. Well, the fence directly behind this tree was. A metal plant stand was struck and blown clear off the fence, shattering some of the fence...


If the tree was damaged by the lightning strike, I feel like we'd of seen damage before now.


It would not have been nice and green at all this spring right?

Something is literally eating the needles off of our tree!



Ugh...


I spoke with a super nice Certified Arborist over at Rainbow Tree Care...

Tony thinks we might have a case of Spruce Spider Mites.



Blerg.


Google It.



It's not pretty.



See?


I swear, It's getting worse by the minute.

I did the 'white paper test' & I definately get little creepy crawlings coming off of the branches...some red, some brown.

They look nothing like the ones I'm seeing via my Google searches...but they can still be spider mites right?




Can my tree be saved?


Will these hungry little creatures...if that is indeed what it is creating this ruckus...move from one 40 foot tree to another?


We don't have many established trees to begin with...it makes me sick to think about losing one!


How does one 40 foot Spruce recover from THIS?


We have no other choice but to pay someone to come out and give us an official diagnosis...and hopefully a quick and painless cure!



Has anything like this ever happened to you?


Can our tree(s) be saved?






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

we had an arborist from the U come out. It was free. she talked about all of our trees (we have 14 mature trees) and gave us advice and tips. She was helpful.

Stacie Raye said...

We had a small evergreen plant that was eaten by some worms that would munch simultaneously. Weird! Our bush never recovered.
Hoping for the best for your poor tree!

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