Identification of Pine Tree Problem/Disease - Help!

Hello,

New to the forum and caretaking of plants/trees. My wife and I purchased a newly built home in June that had all of the landscaping completed at the end of April. As part of our landscaping 4 trees were planted in our yard, one of them being a pine. We had an abnormally dry and long summer this year in Maryland, I feel I kept up with watering during this period as the grass and other plants seem to have done well. I am a little worried about our pine tree though, last week a number of the needles began turning yellow and falling off. After doing some research I saw that this was normal for oldest needles but then was told about a disease impacting pines. I was wondering if anyone would be able to look at the attached picture and be able to identify which, if either, is the case?

Also, any helpful tip at prepping our yard for winter or establishing beds next spring would be wonderful.

Thank you!

Hi and welcome to permies Josh!

It looks like your pine tree is just shedding the older leaves that get less sunlight, that happens about this time each year. I'm south of you and lots of people here use the pine needles to landscape and will soon be raking the falling pine straw into beds around their trees. The new growth and spots that get the most sunlight look really healthy from what I can tell from the picture.

The fallen leaves and pine straw can be raked around your trees to help build up organic matter in the soil which should increase the amount of water the soil can hold and make the soil more healthy, which can eliminate the need to water in the future!