Hmmm, pine cones in a spruce.
I never knew that this was possible.
Maybe I didn't pay attention that time at horticulture school when this subject was treathed... ;0)

touche.. joy.. but a useless answer ...lol

there are a couple hundred version of picea pungens..

the best guess.. w/o a picture...

is that you have two different cultivars .. named plants..

or two seedlings.. and just like kids.. no two are technically the same ... and for sure.. they arent twins ...

if you favor.. get this.. joy.. with a picture.. he can probably name them ...

you surprise me claiming an annual growth rate of a couple feet ... mine do.. at best.. in MI.. 12 to 16 inches .... but never multiple feet ... only pines do that for me ...

and.. finally.. cone production is a function of maturity .. the two are not equally mature.. and the level of said production varies year by year.. for various reasons ....

now i am wondering if picea pungens has gooey cones....???

pix??

ken

Sorry! I (obviously) have no background in conifers or much gardening and am hoping someone can help me here. I've attached a picture of the "pine cones" :-)

Sorry I don't know what they are or why one tree has them and one tree doesn't.

It's not a spruce either, it's a Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii.
It's blue needles says that it's the Colorado form.
The one's with green needles are the coastal form.

Thanks for the identification and again please excuse my ignorance here. This pic show the two. One on the left appears to be growing uniformly and literally 2 feet at least this past season. The one on the right is the one that is seeding (?) and drooping, and overall just doesn't look right.

Any advice or assurance appreciated!

Should I have an arborist out to check them? I want them to thrive!

This post was edited by GregLang on Fri, Sep 6, 13 at 18:30

Thanks! I haven't started my Friday yet either! I hear there's some cold beer around though!

We had them planted with that specifically in mind, block the neighbor's "stuff". I know we have some years to go but they're already making a difference.

We bought the outer two as one species and the middle a different one. Maybe the middle is the Blue Spruce?

The out two look so drastically different fat and full on the left, skinny and seeding on the right.

Here's one pic of what I consider the healthy one.

And here's the one I'm concerned about

Both look OK to me. The differences appear to fall within the normal realm of a Doug fir.

last pic

are you ignoring the multiple leader comments...????

your pic is not close up enough to see anything wrong.. of which i doubt ... other than 2 or 3 leaders ..

ken

But we must also remember that trees actually do increase production of cones under stress. This is for assuring continuence for itôs genome. Plantasions for seed production in finland even use strangling bands around treetrunks for getting more cones.

Is this young tree under stress?

Definitely, when it's trying to grow horizontally out of a cliff :-))

Yep, its growth rate isn't exactly what one would like to expect from a White Spruce, it ought to be putting on a 20-30 cm long lead shoot at that age, so I'd say it is growing in stressful conditions. Looks like compacted ex-agricultural soil could be a primary contributing factor.

Resin

Hi

Thanks for your help. What can we do as we have 100 of these?

Thanks

Luise

enli should have started his own post ... as this has nothing to do with the original post

and give us more background as to what he means.. when he says he has hundreds ...

ken

I too need advice....I'm attaching two images of a tree in our front yard. We recently moved in and the large landscaping needed talc..water, fertilizer, trimming. What type of tree is this? Pine cones are sappy and dropping sap on the driveway. Is this normal or does this tree have a problem? Thanks!