Question: I’m trying to grow East Texas pines west of their native habitat, but they look terrible. They’re 15 years old and 25 feet tall, but they’ve gotten yellow and ugly. What can I do to turn them around?

Answer: I’ve learned to be blunt on this one, so that people don’t misread my true feelings. You really need to get rid of them. What you’re seeing is iron deficiency, and it’s essentially incurable for large trees like this. You might be tempted to try adding an iron/sulfur-soil-acidifier material, but you’d be kidding yourself. Their roots are so extensive, and the area you’d have to cover is so great that you’d probably never be able to get enough iron into the trees. You could try having iron injected directly into the trunks by an arborist. All of these, however, are only temporary solutions. If they work this year, next year, the same treatments will just cost more. Slash and loblolly pines are just not suited outside of their native regions.