yellow needles on Mugo pine

Hi all. I am a new user to this forum and i have only been involved in bonsai for 1 year now. I recently purchased a Mugo pine. For the past two weeks i started to notice yellow needles so i kept a close eye on it. it has been getting a lot worse with more and more needles turning yellow. There are also many needles with yellow tips and light brown spots that look like rust.
I also noticed lots of ants in my garden. Not just where i keep my trees but on my patio and my plant beds. I found the odd one or two running on the soil of my pine.
If any one could help me and give me some information i would be really greatful as i am a novice with no school or nursery to attend in my area.
Thank you for any help that you can give me.





<a href='http://postimage.org/image/usq61kqs/' target='_blank'><img src='http://s1.postimage.org/usq61kqs/14052011653.jpg' border='0' alt="14052011653" /></a>

Here is another image.

Sorry for the small pictures. If you click on them they will enlarge. Thank you for any help that you can give me.

I am not an expert, but Google on Pine Needle Rust.
Iris

Hi Mikey

and welcome to IBC. I hope you'll find all your answers needed. I'm not an expert, but I think any expert will ask for more info on how you care for the mugo; soil mix, watering/feeding, exposure to light, etc...anything more besides ants trespassing in your garden.

Good luck with everything...from loke Emil

Hi. Thank you for your feed back. I keep the tree in the sunniest place of my garden and i water it roughly every 2 to 3 days. I may be watering it a bit too often with out fully letting it dry out between waterings?? It is the second pine I own and i am not used to this kind of soil so I am not sure that my knowledge of this kind of tree is correct. I feed the tree with every watering. It is in a koyadama mix and has been for 3 years since collecting. I purchased it from an experienced enthusiast about 2 weeks ago.

The immeadiate course of action is to stop any feed, cut back on the watering letting the soil dry out a wee bt.let's see what the pine guys come back with.

There also appears to be new needle growth from what I can see in the pics so hopefully all is not bad. Most of my larger pines tend to go a bit yellow just before the new growth comes through and this is mostly restricted to the old needles which then drop off.

Mikey, can you put up some more pictures at all? One of the whole tree against a plain backdrop would be good.

I called in to see Mikey and the tree is in good health, the needles are the old ones... But Mikey is keeping a close eye on the situation.

Fiona is correct, no real panic as the new growth is strong and healthy

Thank you very much for your visit Tony, it was much appreciated. And thank you for all who have replied. I have just never seen a Pine go that pale before, so i got a little worried. I will keep m eye on it and let you all no in a couple of months if it was just me been silly.

Mikey, being silly is such a good trait, it is almost a prerequisite for a long and prosperous life on the IBC.

In all seriousness, at your stage I found the best way to learn was just to admit up front that I knew next to nothing and ask the questions however daft they seemed. In fact, come to think of it, it's a tactic that is very useful irrespective of how long you've been involved in this hobby/art/passion.

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