Green Giants Browning Tips

12 years ago

These were grown in a Green House and I put them out in full sun. No doubt that it's probably because of this. However, I didn't know that I was supposed to harden them off before planting, I just read that you should after reading posts on this forum from Ken. I've always planted from the green house to the yard without problems. I have 20 green giants. 10 planted and 10 in the garage. The ones in the garage still look normal. The ones in the sun have SLIGHT brown tips to a few of the top branches. I don't have photos, but they kind of look like the ones in the link. My GG's are larger and aren't as bad as the ones in the link. I just thought that I would post to make sure they will be ok and if I should take any corrective measures before they get worse. I do have some thin cloth material I can put over each one. Almost like a t-shirt type material, but 3x thinner.

Thankfully the next couple days will be cloudy and rainy so it'll give them a little time in the shade.

They have been in the ground for just over a week now. Will these be ok and continue to grow this year or did I burn up the new growth and they won't grow until next year?

How long should I harden my next 10 off before planting in the sun?

Zone 6

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:702321}}

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Comments (8)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
where did they come from.. and where they greenhouse or outside.. call the seller ...

did you have a heat wave???

pix???

go to your members page.. and insert where you are and what zone.. i cant keep track of all you peeps ...

brown tips arent really going to slow them down .... if its just the very tip .. hardening off should not be as tricky as annuals and perennials ....

ken
ricksample
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Ken... they did come from a green house in Michigan. No real heat wave. All week it's bee in the upper 70's. Last week lower 70's. I won't be able to get pics until tonight or tomorrow. Not that it'll help much, but the tips look exacty of that posted in the link above.

What makes me think of it's the hardening issue is on some of the tips, the outter part facing the sky is browning and the inner/under part is still green. It's not bad at all and is only happening on the very top of the plant because this is the part that receives sun all day. The sides aren't showing any difference yet. Probably because they only receive half the amount of sun.
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have any of you HARDENED them off to full sun application .... IF THEY CAME FROM A GREENHOUSE/shadehouse ... perhaps they are burning up.. because you blasted them out to full blistering sun???? when i order conifers.. i always try to remember to ask upon order.. or call them back when i get them.. to ask if they came from a greenhouse ... the next question would be how your zone compare between yours and where they are shipped from ... if they are growing lushly in z8 .. and you plant them asap in z4 in very early spring ... again.. there might be hardening off issues .... but to temps this time .... just speculating ... the grafters in WA and OR... tend to leave them outdoors the second winter.. or what they call winter.. lol ... but GG's are a rooted plant ... and it wouldnt surprise me if they are in green or shade houses .... ken
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to encourage you to post a pic ...??? that looks like normal spring growth .... definitely NOT browning ... and to my eye.. not yellow ... though it is off-green ... and since it is ONLY this springs growth ... it NORMAL ... go look real close.. and the bark.. will show you what was there last fall .. its brownish ... and what is fresh green bark ... and this springs growth .... i can see it in your pic .... its chlorophyll production will catch up ... thats a lot of spring growth.. did you fert them at planting...?? ... i would not fert them .. ever ... take care .. and good luck ... ken
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ricksample
Original Author
12 years ago
Here is a quick picture I took between the rain showers today. All 10 I have planted outside are like this. You can't tell from far away until you get up close. Even though it was cloudy/rainy all day, the brown does look a little more noticeable. Where you see the brown on this GG, the ones in the garage are very light green.

{{gwi:702324}}
botann
12 years ago
It looks like healthy new growth to me.
Note the lack of shriveling.
Mike
wisconsitom
12 years ago
Though not an exact similarity, have you ever noticed how "brown" a lot of spruces, like Norway spruce especially, look right before they commence new growth? There is a bud cap that is tannish-brown in color, which seems to become more noticeable right before all the glorious green growth pushes out.

Could there be a similar thing happening with GGs?

BTW, my GGs, up at my land, came through the winter looking quite nice and green. But during the month of April, they caught a lot of apparent wind burn, even though most of that time, the wind had rain mixed with it! Kinda surprised at how beat up they look right now. My suspicion though is that they'll come through just fine.

+oM
ricksample
Original Author
12 years ago
We've been pretty windy here all week, that could be the cause as well. We've had a few major storms the past few days that I thought would for sure take down a few of my trees.

I hope the brown is because of new growth. I'm just not to sure because I still have 10 GG's in my garage and they all have bright green tips. So you can tell that they have already been growing this season. All 10 I planted outside the tips went from bright green to brown tips.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
they are not dark green like the smargard ...

your pic is not the greatest.. but they are well within the normal gold frosted coloration of winter ...

i am not sure it is burn ... but obviously some part of transplant, planting and shipping shock ...

where in MI ...

thx for refreshing my memory of where you are ...

ken
ricksample
Original Author
12 years ago
We purchased them from Holland MI. Today I put the other 10 on my back porch to get some sun. I'm going to see if they start to bronze over the next couple of sunny days before planting. If they don't bronze, it has to be from transplanting. If they do, it would have to be from burn. Before I put these 10 into the ground, I definitely want to make sure the others are going to survive. It's a lot of hard work planting so many 1 gal trees.

On another note, when I did plant these 2 1/2 trees, about half weren't rooted. They had a pretty large looking root system, but the dirt fell off the ball and I had to almost hold the root ball together so I can pack dirt around it.

That picture is from my camera phone, tonight I will try to get some good pictures of the full plant and another closeup.

Green Giants Browning Tips

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Green Giants Browning Tips

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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