To say I love hoop houses or high tunnels, is an understatement. I believe that we need to produce as much of our own food locally, when we can. No you can't grow tomatoes in January (without lots of heat and other stuff) but why not grow what you can. I have 6 high tunnels. 4 stationary ones and 2 movable ones. In a single year we will have over 5,000 square feet under plastic. If I have my way (I hope I do) I will put up one more this late summer/fall and replace my smallest one. Three years ago and $200 I built my first two tunnels. They were 12 by 18 and 8 by 12. I still have the 12 by 18. I took down the other one to make room for my 18.5 by 45. I build my own tunnels. They cost around $600 to build. I can't say enough about them. I think everyone should have one. At least on on every block. Yes, a 12 by 18 is enough space to feed a family. In addition to this, we have about another 3/4 of an acre we "Farm". Our produce feeds our family of 6 and I sell at 3-4 Farmers Markets a week. By the way in our zone 5, we are harvesting, zucchini, cucumbers, Pickling cucumbers, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, beets, chard, bok choy, carrots and onions from our tunnels. Pretty unbelievable with the spring we have had. Cool and wet. Check out our blog, I added the link below. Click on High tunnels on the right and page down. You will see all our tunnels. Jay Here is a link that might be useful: High Farming Blog

really need that pic .. BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING... first thing that crosses my mind.. is the possibility of you not recognizing a maturing bark ... how big a pot is a 4 foot pine in??? .. and what is the media??? there is a conifer forum.. but most of those peeps hang here.. so no need to move the post ... ken

Sorry Ken, the thing exploded into a bazillion dusty spores and vanished in to the either. If I had a pic of the before I would have shared. All that's left is a discolored mark on the side of the tree. It looked like a single hard mass. I honestly thought it might bust off in a solid chunk. But it went airborne like a bag of baby powder.

Hi Moonchinka I could only post 1 picture so it was the one with the white fluff I opted for. I don't think it's mealy bug because the appearance and distribution of the white fluff is very regular in shape and place. I've come across them on other things before. I was wondering about a fungus infection? Here's another image that should show the browning of the needles. I have been concerned that the whole tree looks less green than before. As I said, I haven't actively been watering the tree since it's been a wet winter. I've even tilted the tree's bowl to help with drainage. I don't have a green house to over-winter and I don't believe stagnant indoors air circulation is good for the plant. So what else might I be able to do please if water is the problem? Thanks for your opinion.