Gardening Plants & Flowers Trees

How to Grow and Care for Eastern White Pine

Eastern white pine

The Spruce / Adrienne Legault

The Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) is the biggest conifer native to eastern North America. This fast-growing evergreen with long, soft, blue-green needles is commonly found as far north as Newfoundland and as far south as northern Georgia, a span covering growing zones 3 to 8. The eastern white pine can grow to be as tall as 80 feet and as wide as 40 feet. 

The tree has a graceful, rounded pyramidal shape. It makes an excellent windbreak and shade tree and can be clipped into hedges. The branches are also prized for crafts and decorations; the boughs are commonly employed in outdoor Christmas decorations using greenery.

Fun Facts

  • The pine cones also come in handy for creating decorations once you learn how to wire the cones.
  • The lifespan of an eastern white pine tree is 200 years.
  • Eastern white pine is the only pine tree in the East that bears five needles to a bundle. These bundles form clusters that look like little brushes.
Common Name Eastern white pine
Botanical Name Pinus strobus
Family Pinaceae
Plant Type Tree
Mature Size 50-80 ft. tall, 20-40 ft. wide
Sun Exposure Full, partial
Soil Type Moist, well-drained
Soil pH Acidic
Hardiness Zones 3-8 (USDA)
Native Area North America
Eastern white pine
The Spruce / Adrienne Legault 
Eastern white pine

The Spruce / Adrienne Legault 

Eastern White Pine Care

Here are the main care requirements for growing an eastern white pine:

  • Plant eastern white pine in ground that has a low soil pH (also referred to as "acidic soil"). Ensure the soil is medium-moisture and well-drained.
  • Plant your eastern white pine in full sun in cool climates. But plant it in partial sun in warmer environments.
  • Improve compacted clay soils with compost prior to planting.
  • Give eastern white pine lots of space. Individual trees should be planted at least 20 to 30 feet away from any other trees or shrubs.

Light

This tree does well with at least four hours of direct sunlight each day. But the hotter the climate, the more it appreciates a bit of afternoon shade.

Soil

Eastern white pine likes an acidic soil that is well-drained. A thick bed of pine needle mulch over the root zone will cool the soil. It can perform poorly in urban environments where pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and ozone are present in the soil.

Water

Keep the tree well-watered when young, but, once established, it does fairly well in dryish soil, provided the soil is kept cool. If given about 1 inch of water weekly, it remains a happy specimen.

Temperature and Humidity

Eastern white pine doesn't like very hot climates. This is a tree that prefers cool, humid weather. In the warmer end of its hardiness range, it sometimes struggles.

Fertilizer

Eastern white pine should be fed in spring with a high-acid fertilizer designed for evergreens. For the amount, follow the fertilizer label instructions.

Types of Eastern White Pine

The species form is the type that is most often planted, but there are several good cultivars, especially the dwarf varieties:

  • 'Nana' and 'Compacta' are two mounded dwarf varieties.
  • 'Blue Shag' is a compact form with blue-green needles.
  • 'Contorta' is a variety with twisted, curled branches.
  • 'Fatigiata' has a tall, columnar form with blue-green needles.
  • 'Pendula' is a weeping form of eastern white pine.
  • 'Aurea' is a variety with yellow needles.

Pruning

Prune away broken, dead, or diseased branches whenever you see them. When trimming for shape or size, perform the pruning in late fall, winter, or early spring when the tree is dormant.

Propagating Eastern White Pine

This tree is fairly easy to propagate from seeds.

  1. Take large, mature cones that are allowed to fully dry out. Once a cone is dry and brittle, shake out the seeds.
  2. Plant them about 1/4 inch deep in moist soil in a shady spot. Make sure to mark the location well so you won't accidentally weed them out or mow them down.
  3. Keep the soil moist, watering in the absence of rain. Germination and initial growth will take some time, but small trees are then easily transplanted to other locations.
  4. Once the trees reach small sapling size, growth becomes quite swift.

Common Pests & Plant Diseases

Unfortunately, eastern white pine is susceptible to many pests and diseases. A variety of blight and rust diseases are possible, one of which—white pine blister rust—often kills the trees. Make sure this disease is not common in your area before planting an eastern white pine.

White pine weevils can attack this tree, especially when it's still under 20 feet tall. Symptoms of the pest feeding on the tree include a curled, dead, or dying terminal leader, and shiny resin oozing from the small holes that the weevils chew into the bark in the spring. The leader should be removed promptly to interrupt the pest's life cycle. The application of pesticides can be difficult with large trees.

Common Problems With Eastern White Pine

A common problem with eastern white pine is that homeowners fail, at planting time, to take into account mature size. As a result, the tree quickly outstrips the space allotted to it and impinges on other plants, fences, decks, your house, etc. If you like the foliage of eastern white pine but are not sure that you have enough room for it in your yard, an alternative is to prune it regularly to keep this massive specimen as more of a shrub rather than as a tree.

FAQ
  • Are eastern white pine trees messy?

    Yes. The cones are difficult to rake up in fall and slow to decompose. In spring, its pollen dirties decks. Worse, it will drop hard-to-clean pitch down on the windshield of any car parked under it.

  • Do deer eat eastern white pine?

    Yes. Place fencing around young trees to protect them. Once the trees are large enough that their branches are out of the deer's reach, remove the fencing.

  • Are eastern white pines good for privacy?

    While Pinus strobus is hardly a conventional hedge plant, it can be used effectively in this capacity. If you live in a rural area and have lots of saplings popping up on your property, you can easily turn them into a free hedge. Dig them up while they're still young and plant them in a row, as you would any hedge. Then, head them back regularly to keep their growth in check.

  • Does eastern white pine have cones?

    Like other pines including the Norfolk Island pine, this is a gymnosperm—a tree that bears seeds that are exposed in a cone structure rather than enclosed in a nut. The tree's cones are cylindrical and are the largest pine cones found in many areas of the tree's range, reaching as much as 6 inches long. By comparison, the pine cones of a pitch pine (​Pinus rigida) measure only about 3 1/2 inches long.

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  1. White Pine Weevil. Penn State Extension.