Dying pine trees

Question

I have three pine trees on my property that look distressed. All the lower branches are black and dead and only the upper 25 percent of the tree has needles. I live in Big Bear City, Ca and there is a drought. Can I save the trees by deep watering?

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Answer 1

This can happen naturally in taller pines. If you are seeing black, though, this can mean a fungal/bacterial infection. Watering more will only inflate the problem. You can put wettable sulfur around the area to kill off the infection in the soil, and hope that the tree can recover. It would be very difficult to treat the top of the tree. If it kills off the entire tree, then the last option will be to cut it down.