The Black Spruce Tree

This is the tree behind my place.

I don't have any before pictures. I have pruned this tree extensively and fertilized it. Then I took these pictures. There are two other trees like it that I haven't touched yet, so you can get some idea of the condition this one was in before I did some work on it.

In the three above pictures you and see all three trees. Some closer looks follow. I referenced my National Geographic Field Guide to the Trees of North America to identify what species these trees are. After checking all the evergreen trees listed and then going back through a process of elimination I identified them as black spruce.

Black spruce are a species of tree that can grow in climatic region 1. Ottawa is in region 3. I did some further research that confirmed my identification. This species of tree can grow to a height of about 20 meters. The tallest one here is about 4 meters tall. These trees grow very slowly.

This is the smallest of the three trees. You can see it has a considerable number of dead branches. This is not exactly on the property attached to my place but I'm going to attempt to do a pruning job on it and feed it. I think and I hope the neighbours won't mind.

This and the next three pictures give a closer look at the middle tree.

In this and the next picture you can see a fair number of dead limbs, especially in the lower reaches of the tree.

Back to the tree just behind my place. This picture starts a series where I get a closer look. You will see that I haven't yet removed much of the dead wood. There is a lot more to do here.

I can't reach the upper branches without a ladder, but they seem to be doing alright.

Here's a closer look at the trunk. You can see quite a bit of moss there. I hope that's normal and doesn't negatively affect the tree. I think that's the case.

Another view of the trunk closer to the ground, and you can see there is still quite a bit of dead wood to be removed.

There is stands. It remains to be seen how it will do as I give it some more attention.