Hi everyone, happy new year!

I have a couple of ponderosas that I've been working on the last couple of years, and I've noticed that the needles seem to be a lighter/duller green than another one I recently picked up from Andy Smith.  Looking back at older pictures, the needles seem to have grayed a bit recently.

My JBPs and other conifers are doing great, with nice deep dark green color.  The only thing I can think of is that I've left those two ponderosas outside sitting on my benches, and we've had quite a bit of cold and wind lately.  My other conifers, including the ponderosa from Andy, have been in my unheated garage.

Any thoughts on what the issue could be?

Hi John, thanks very much for your thoughts.  I was thinking of moving them back into the garage, but I'll keep them outside since it sounds like this is a common occurrence.  I've left the one I got from Andy this fall in the garage, as it was collected in April 2010, and I figured I'd play things a little safe with it since we had temps here in the low 20s with lots of cold winds.

I bought a diluted lime sulfur solution and some Daconil as well.  I've never done the preventative spray thing before, but was planning on spraying the diluted lime sulfur solution this weekend (temps in the 40s) and maybe the Daconil this spring.  When spraying preventatives on your trees, I take it you cover the soil surface so that the mixture doesn't go into the soil?  Do you then hose it off later, or just let it sit on the trees?

Thanks very much in advance.

Thanks - that sounds like an easy plan.  I'll try that tomorrow. 

Have a happy 2011 John - thanks again.