This is a post by Karl three years ago on the subject. I have a Teasing Geogia that is developing galls. I will try his method this coming spring. See below ================= I do surgery on the infected plant. I remove it from the soil and wash all the soil off the roots. I place it on a newspaper and carefully remove the gall. Using an Exacto knife I carefully cut away the area where the gall was attached, until I get to clean uninfected wood..I then put antibacteria ointment on the wound. The cheap stuff from Wal-Mart. I mix a cup of bleach in 5 gallons of water, drench the soil where the rose was planted, then replant the bush treating it as a bare root. Every rose I've treated this way has recovered and grown nicely. Crown Gall is from a bacteria in the soil so it made sense to me to treat it as a bacteria infection. Don't know if anyone else has done this but it works for me and I've never lost a bush to Crown Gall as a result. Great care must be taken to avoid nicking the bush anywhere close to the ground. Crown gall can enter through a pruner nick, or an insect bite or even a scrape in the bark. I wrap up the gall removed from the plant and destroy it.

Chester: Part of what you say is confusing. You have certainly not, I hope, cut back three or four "years" of growth--you mean you cut back to 3 or 4 side shoots. Right? These weevils seldom eat down past the prior yearÂs growth. Where Norway spruce are reasonably fast growing I would say they destroy about 2/3rds of the prior yearÂs growth, and after they stop eating, the best side shoot usually grows beyond the top limit of that prior yearÂs growth. You may not find any grubs because they may have exited. After they reach a certain growth stage they leave the shoot and drop to the ground where they live until they mature and fly or crawl up another (or the same ) tree the next spring to continue their devilish work. If you don't find grubs at the lowest level where the shoot looks like its inner bark has been eaten out, they have all left, and there is no point in doing any more trimming--you can just leave the damaged top with its dead shoots, and after the next year's growth, that will not really be noticeable. Also, these weevils like really strong fat leaders, so after one top is weeviled, they usually donÂt come back to infect the same tree two years in a row. Sometimes they do, but not usually. As for the relatively wide trees: that could have several causes, including intentional pruning back, possibly for Christmas tree production, possibly for height control, possibly to cut out disfigured tops from weevil damage. I donÂt know. Also, there is considerable genetic variation in NS, and what you see could also be partly the result of that. In any case, how wide a tree is now will not ultimately affect its shape as it grows and matures. It will revert to its basic genetic "programming" in combination with the effects of its current and future growing conditions. --Spruce

what??? ... lol .. i missed the knighting ceremony ... lol ... see link ... https://www.google.com/search?q=Picea+orientalis+cone&biw=796&bih=745&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=J_aaVfPBGcH0oASqxZvoAg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=Picea+orientalis+pollen+cone might have to wait for sir stickystuff ... aka sir resin ken

Lucky I caught these before they ate all of P. Banksiana Uncle Fogy. They work quickly for sure. I was watching them for a few minutes, they seem to have endless bellies. Probably because they poop a lot. I used a “general” bug killer and it did not appear to harm the tree (and I used a lot, Spectrum brand in the 1 gallon or slightly smaller container, I already had it which is why I used it). I also used a bunch on a columnar white pine to treat the pine bark adelgid. There were a lot of white splotches/patchy areas where branches come out of main trunk and it seems to work decent though I will spray the pine once more before winter. No noticeable harm to pine. Apparently I bought this pine infected or they developed quickly but for 4 years Ive been concerned if it would make it(even though though I didnt treat it for 4 years lol). Now I am rather confident it will be fine. Just need to stay on it and spray periodically. But the amount of white has gone down for sure.