BP-24 Tree Diseases Cooperative Extension Service Purdue University West Lafayette, IN Diplodia Tip Blight of Pines C. Pecknold, Extension, Plant Pathologist Pine trees may be severely damaged by a fungus disease known as Diplodia tip blight.
Trees suffering from stress conditions are more prone to severe injury.
The most common symptoms are the stunting and browning of current-year shoots in the lower branches. The killing back of the current season's growth. Initially, the disease is confined to the lower branches. However, with time, the disease progresses upward until only the very upper branches are green, while the middle and lower portion of the tree is brown with brittle, dead branches. Small, raised, black spore-producing bodies of the fungus break through the surface of killed needles, cone scales, and the bark of twigs or branches.