Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

New Guide – Troubleshooting yellow foliage on black pine

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Over the years I’ve written about various causes of yellow foliage on black pines. In an effort to record all of this information in one place, I’ve created a new guide that provides info on the following categories of yellow foliage:

  1. Old needles are turning yellow
  2. New needles are yellow near the base but green towards the tip
  3. One or more branches are yellow but the rest of the tree is healthy
  4. Yellowness accompanied by spots
  5. Yellowness accompanied by brown or black needle tips
  6. Shriveled or twisted yellow needles
  7. General Yellowing
  8. Yellow on the upper side of needles
Old needles on black pine

Old needles turning yellow in fall

You can view the guide at “Why is my pine yellow? A black pine troubleshooting guide.“

I plan to update the guide as the need arises, so feel free to provide suggestions for improvements in the comments below.

News & Updates

  • Yamato Bonsai Kai is hosting their 50th exhibition this weekend at the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church, 32975 Alvarado-Niles Road in Union City, California. The hours are 11am to 5pm on the 16th and 10am to 5pm on the 17th. Club sensei Johnny Uchida will be doing demonstrations on both days of the show. I’ll be vending there so stop by and say hi!
  • Bonsai soil will be available on the Bonsai Tonight Online Store next Wednesday. Supply is currently limited, but I’m expecting subsequent shipments as soon as the current shipping congestion clears up.
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Comments

  1. Hello Jonas,

    I have an issue with 1 year old JB pines from seed. Bottom needles started to turn brown during the summer, then they stopped around halfway through the small pines. Now the thing started to move up again and the majority of the saplings are dry. I kinda got to terms with them all being goners, but since this article popped up I figured I could ask if there is something that can be done.

    The guide looks great but I don’t think any of the case does apply to seedlings/my kind of problem. If you need it I can provide a picture.

    Thanks a lot for what you do.

    • ps: I should have re-read the comment before posting, sorry for the spelling mistakes and the unclear sentences, my bad!

    • Hi Alessandro! Feel free to send a photo to the contact info at the bottom of the page.

      Progressive dieback on young trees is often due to a watering problem (e.g. the trees died out) or a fungal pathogen.

  2. This is great, thanks!
    Here in the Netherlands we had so much rain during spring and summer that a lot of my pines turned yellow. They are all in pond baskets in good draining soil. Most of my two year old pines had yellowing near the base of needles and with some the whole needle mass became yellow (the older needles stayed dark green). Interestingly enough the recently repotted trees didn’t yellow at all.

    • Thanks, Fred! Interesting that the repotted trees stayed green – if the soil is the same, it may be because the soil hadn’t broken down yet.

      One thing to try if the trees are staying too wet is to prop them up at an angle (I don’t know if this will help with pond baskets) or move them under an eve so they can dry out a little.