How many times have you been out in the woods and seen a controversial tree break? You look at it and wonder if it was broken by snow, wind, bear, deer or elk, drug dealers, snowplows or maybe a bigfoot? I am not here to argue if it’s possible a bigfoot could make these breaks. I got curious and wanted to find out how long it takes a tree snap or break to turn brown. If I could figure out how fast the needles turned brown, I could start to get an idea how old a tree break was when I found it.

When I started this experiment, I had no idea how long it would take before the needles turn brown. I started this experiment on July 15, 2006 and concluded it on August 15, 2006. I used one of two pine trees I am growing in my backyard for use as Christmas trees in the future. My protocol was simple. I broke a large branch near the top of the tree and took pictures and notes each day for the first eight days. After that, I checked it in 5-10 day intervals.

The results of my experiment were quite surprising. In just one month the broken branch was 90-95% brown with just a sprig or two of green needles peppered underneath. I realize that many factors come in to play in an experiment like this. The type and age of the pine tree used, shade, wind, elevation, temperature, humidity and soil type are just a few of the variables to be addressed in future experiments. However, not forth standing, I think I could make some generalizations from this experiment. A quick overview is as follows:

By the third day, there was definite browning of needles, showing definite signs of dying.
By the eighth day of the experiment, about half of all needles were brown.
By the 26th day, 80-90% of the needles were brown.
At the end of a month (31 days), 90-95% of the needles were brown.