Please help me! I have a pom pom pine in my front yard that I absolutely adore. It is appox. 5 years old. I have trimmed the pom poms back each year to keep the shape. This year I trimmed them each back but noticed inside the pom poms are filled with dead needles and dry brittle branches. The only greenery is a little on the outside of each pom pom. If I cut the pom poms back to shape (the tree grows very large and overtakes the other bushes if not trimmed back) I am left with dead, brittle dying branches. Should I trim them all down and start again? Is the tree sick? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I can send photos if necessary. Cheers, nat

I know it's too late for this year, but I'm adding my experience for those who find this thread next year. We had a Frontgate or Grandin Road tree for about 5 years and it was OK until one part of the lights went out and it was pretty hard to figure out how to fix it. The Light Keeper tool mentioned above would probably have worked, but the tree was damaged during our move over the summer anyway. Plus, I have higher ceilings now so I wanted a taller tree. I found the website christmastreeforme.com quite informative about the construction and lighting of artificial trees. I was going to buy from them, but the one I liked only came with multi-colored lights and I wanted clear. I ended up finding one on the vickerman.com website. Vickerman is a wholesale company and they have a good search engine for finding the size tree you want. I then used the model number to find it online at elightbulbs.com. They had very good prices, and I noticed a Vickerman tree on the christmastreeforme.com website for a couple hundred dollars more than it was at elightbulbs.com. I ordered on a Wednesday and had my tree 5 days later, on Monday. I was nervous about getting it because I ordered less than 2 weeks before Christmas. When I emailed elightbulbs.com to check on the status, they responded quickly. I'd order from them again. The tree was easy to set up. Mine came in 4 sections and the lights had to be connected in a few places, but everything was well marked. The branches are all hinged, and it took well over an hour to fluff them out after I put the tree together. I chose a tree with Vickerman's "Dura-Lit" lights because they are supposed to stay lit even if multiple bulbs are removed or burned out. With 800 lights on the tree, I don't want to have to do a lot of troubleshooting so I hope the lights work for several years. I thought about getting LED lights that would last much longer, but I've seen some unfavorable reviews about the color and intensity of the light. My next tree will be LED, I'm sure. Overall I am happy with this tree. It's the 8.5'H x 60"W blue albany spruce. I bent some of the lower branches up a bit so it would fit in a smaller space, so it is probably closer to 54"W. I found 8.5'H is good for my almost 10' ceilings. By the way, I like to put an angel on top of my tree and most artificial trees can't support the weight of it. I found a tree topper extension kit from balsamhill.com for $20 that worked well. I was able to put my angel exactly where I wanted it. Balsam Hill had quick shipping as well, and I got my extension kit the same day I got my tree.

the first pic is hard to interpret .. but it looks like it was jammed in a corner with less than a foot of space on two sides ... ergo.. it is lacking vigor and sun on two sides ... and things happen to plants that lack vigor.. as in .. they can be attacked by all kinds of things ... and if thats the case.. trying to remedy secondary issues.. never really solves the first issue ... lack of sun ... frankly.. the easiest solution/treatment ..... is to get rid of it ... why spend 20 dollars on a cure.. on a $10 plant .. ken what about a trellis and some clematis .. that can hopefully grow up into the sun ...

There would be no specific reason to follow that watering schedule - unless it had been very hot for a week and then showery for all the subsequent weeks. Certainly the nursery should not be making a blanket recommendation to water daily for a week, and then once per week afterward - when to water is when a particular plant needs it, on a particular planting site. And no conventionally grown plant is going to be fully established after only one week - see discussion at above link. Unfortunately no new foliage is going to appear next year where you see brown all the way to the outside now. The only way the balls are going to recover themselves is by remaining live portions growing over the parts that have gone brown and dead, from the sides. The extent of the browning suggests to me that there is a cultural issue, such as a failed approach to watering or a foliage disease problem. If you are in the US you might try clipping off samples, as well as taking photos to the nearest USDA Cooperative Extension Service branch office for help with problem identification. You will have to be able to get there when they are open during weekdays.