Last fall(Oct, 2010)...me and my wife purchased a 5ft tall Japanese white pine for my father's birthday...it has 3 year full money back warranty if anything happens to it from the nursery we bought it from...

When we purchased it..it had seed pods on top of the tree and all the needles were green...looks very healthy...

we bought the necessary soil required for replanting.

The tree originally was packaged in a root ball..so no soil at all...it was all roots...we bought a huge flower pot...wider then the root ball of the pine tree and 4 bags of acidic soil..for the tree...

we planted it into the pot..with proper drainage at the bottom of the pot...

so the tree was good for couple of month..when December Came...we have noticed some of the green needles starting to fall off the pine tree.....then when Jan came...the top part of the pine tree..well the green colours are turning light brown..and more leaf are falling off......the soil was never dry...

over the weekend when i went back to my father's house to look at the pine tree after the snow storm...i noticed that almost 70%(starting from the top to bottom) are all brown....the needles closer to the roots are still green and healthy looking...

i have also snapped off some branch that got no more needles...they seem to be all dried up..they are like crispy..

my question is...is my father tree dying? should i take it out of the pot and submerge it into a tub full of water? any chance i can save it???

Thank You

You might want to post over on Tree Forum also. Please add more information on how you were growing this tree.

Jane

thanks

First off, you may be using a soil that is simply too compact (and has too much organic matter). Try to get your hands on some soil with more grit than your current batch. Or if you have enough left over I would take what you've got and mix in a bunch of hadite, or something similar.

I think the problem is that your tree is not getting enough drainage (from the sounds of the pot). The roots of the tree don't soak up water, they actually soak up water vapor so if your soil is always really wet the water probably doesn't have enough air passing by it to evaporate. Air is also an essential consumable for your roots and you don't want to suffocate them by using something like potting soil.

What I would do from here is repot the tree. I would remove it from it's current pot and get most the soil off the roots. Then I would place the tree roots in a bath of water and Superthrive (you can find this at Home Depot). I would let it soak while you prepare the pot making sure you add a drainage layer (and possibly more holes in the pot if necessary). Use the new (more course) soil to repot the tree and give it a thorough watering with a water-Superthrive mix. If your soil is correctly mixed the water should not collect at the top but rather pass right through the soil.

When I have similar emergencies this is what I do. I actually just had to do this on three Ficus trees. They are doing well but like you I did lose a few branches that just dried out. The house sitter neglected my babies!!!