Hello, could you help me identify what is wrong with my pinus sylvestris and possibly save it? I have had it for two years, same place, not letting it completely dry between watering. This started to appear less than two months ago and is slowly spreading on lower part of the tree.

Is it the Brown spot needle blight or something else? There are few black spots on the needles but not as much as i would expect. Also if I try to "wipe" the brown needles with my fingers, there is a browny/yellowish dust residue...

Thank you for any help!

You need to provide more information, where are you, where is it placed? how much sun does it get etc.

Right, sorry.

I am in Czech republic, near Brno city - zone 7a. Bonsai is in my backyard, placed on wooden "table", water runs out freely. Now it gets 7-8 hours full sunlight, was 8+ in June and July. Soil is mix pumice, akadama and bit of lavarock. Repotted in spring 2024. No wiring and no incident happened before it started to go brown.

The browning seems to be all on the lower branches, from the style of the tree it would be possible to lose the affected branches and the tree would still look good. it is almost as if the lower branches have been shaded out. You could if you don't want to remove them just cut off the affected bits It could be caused by an insect, or it could be that the branches have been knocked or damaged in some way.

There are healthy buds all over the affected branches. Do not cut anything! Just wait until the flush of growth in spring and evaluate the health based on that.

That's fair comment, but if it was mine I would lose the lower branches to improve the design, makes it more literati like.

Yes, I agree that there are branches that needs to go at some point. However I do not think that now is the right time. What if one of the branches left do not flush the upcoming spring? There will be an even bigger design issue.

Only prune fully healthy trees.