Dealing With Needle Cast on Baby Blue Spruce

Joe in Canton asks, ‘question regarding a baby blue spruce. Needle cast. So I was up at your nursery the other day and got copper fungicide. I’d say less than 5% of the tree, the needles have turned brown, but I applied this heavily, used the whole container. I’m just curious what the odds are of saving that tree. Is it hard to say?’

I guess it depends on the severity of it. You know, if it’s like a localized area and you’re kind of keeping it at bay, that’s going to be your best choice. But yeah, the blue spruces are kind of susceptible to it, and I know that they’ve been an issue. So you’re probably going to be fighting it for a while. Once it has it, you have to just keep preventing it. Copper fungicide is probably the best thing to use, but it’s just a gamble.

You’re catching it early enough. And if you can cut out any of the damaged branches and get rid of it, throw it away, that will really help it because you don’t want any of that to lay on the ground, the dead needles or anything like that. That will create a worse environment for it.

You probably would want to stop into either one of the stores, we’ll tell you exactly which one to use in the spring, but another application of something in the spring before it starts flushing new growth would be a really good idea.

The best bet would just be to keep staying on top of it. It’s good that it’s a localized area. You can keep it at bay, but it is something that you’re just going to have to like, keep doing, unfortunately it is kind of a headache. But you know, if it’s in that small area, you’re looking good for now, it’s just going to be one of those things that might be like an uphill battle for a while. Anything that shows any kind of signs of the damage and get rid of it, throw it in the trash.

And the blue spruce is just so pretty, but that is the trade-off. They have a really nice color. They’re really cool trees, but they are susceptible to that, you know? And it is kind of a pain in the butt. Sometimes a little more high maintenance than other high maintenance. They’re very cool trees though. Pretty things usually are high maintenance, right? You got to do what you got to do.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).