Longleaf Pine

Size, growth and what to expect

Longleaf pine spends 2 to 15 years in a grass stage, a tuft of needles at ground level while the taproot grows. The stage commonly lasts 5 to 7 years. Our growth estimator uses a medium rate, a foot and a half a year, to allow for the grass stage. It matures at 60 to 120 feet with a crown 30 to 40 feet wide.

Cones come 20 to 30 years after the grass stage ends, or at 9 to 10 years on fertile old fields. Pollen is shed from late February to early April, and the cones ripen in September and October of their second year. The seed falls from mid-October through November. Fox squirrels, quail and turkeys eat the seed. One tree dated by its rings lived 458 years.

It grows wild from southeastern Virginia to central Florida and west to eastern Texas, on sandhills, flatwoods and savannas. It has also been recorded in Arkansas, where it is not native and may have been planted.

How to grow Longleaf Pine

Longleaf pine needs full sun and a deep, acid soil that drains well, sand best of all. Once established it needs no watering, and it stands drought better than any other southern pine. Where irrigation water is alkaline, its needles yellow. Keep it away from drives and walks, where its falling needles, cones and sap make a mess and its roots can crack asphalt. Beyond its native range it seldom does well. Plant it 20 feet from a wall, and set trees 30 feet apart. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship potted. Potted longleaf survives planting better than bare-root stock, and nearly all its seedlings are now grown in containers. Plant between November and March while the soil is moist, with the root collar at the soil line. The seed sprouts within weeks of falling, so sow it in fall as soon as it arrives. Press it into bare, moist soil and scatter a little pine straw over it.

Water in dry spells through the first year. Keep grass and weeds off a circle at least 30 inches across, since competition can hold a seedling in the grass stage for 15 years. Hogs root up the seedlings and can wipe out a planting. It needs no pruning.

Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen, but a lone tree tends to set less seed than trees in a group. Brown spot needle blight is the chief disease of seedlings in the grass stage, and burning the dead grass in winter controls it. Grown trees resist most pests and diseases, though bark beetles attack trees struck by lightning or stressed by drought. It is the most wind-firm southern pine but breaks under ice.