Effectively endemic on Indiana blue spruce. It is the single most common reason a blue spruce gets removed here. In Fishers, fishers was not one of the 23 communities in Indiana DNR's street-tree sample inventory, so no verified species breakdown exists for the city. What is documented is that the Tree Board maintains a list of desirable and undesirable species and no species off that list may be planted as a street tree without special permission — the practical picture being a 1990s-2000s nursery palette in tight uniform age classes, with ash gone since EAB was confirmed in Indiana in 2004. Rhizosphaera needlecast is near-universal on mature blue spruce here.
Fishers's canopy and what's at risk
Fishers was not one of the 23 communities in Indiana DNR's street-tree sample inventory, so no verified species breakdown exists for the city. What is documented is that the Tree Board maintains a list of desirable and undesirable species and no species off that list may be planted as a street tree without special permission — the practical picture being a 1990s-2000s nursery palette in tight uniform age classes, with ash gone since EAB was confirmed in Indiana in 2004.
What to look for
Needles browning and dropping from the bottom of the tree upward and from the inside out, leaving bare lower limbs.
Whether the tree can be saved
Rhizosphaera needlecast is near-universal on mature blue spruce here. Fungicide can hold the line on a tree that still has most of its canopy; a spruce that's bare halfway up is not coming back, because spruce doesn't refoliate old wood.
Timing in Hamilton County
Two fungicide applications in spring, repeated for two to three consecutive years. Miss a year and it resets.
10475 Crosspoint Blvd Ste 250-2645, Indianapolis, IN 46256
5.0★★★★★32
Tree Removal
Tree Trimming
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“The owner, Curt, is great to deal with. His estimates are very clear and fair. He is there (from start to finish) personally supervising his crew and…”