I planted three Colorado blue spruce (minis) about 8 years ago. All three in a row and about six feet apart. The two outside trees are doing wonderful. The middle tree is becoming stunted and losing it's blue color. It still produces cones and doesn't seem to be losing any limbs but it is only 2/3 the size of the others. I thought it might be lack of sun but I did notice the other day that it gets full sun from around 10:00am to 6:00 pm (once the sun is higher in the sky). I don't water them a whole lot as I was told they don't require a lot of water and that too much could be bad for them. Any ideas? Thank you

Hi John:

This disparity in growth, relative to your other two blue spruce, could be due to several factors, the most obvious include:

1) Genetics 2) Quality of planting stock and root system 3) Care of planting stock prior to planting 4) Micro-site variability

Yes, over-watering is bad for trees; however, so is under-watering your trees (especially conifers) during periods of summer drought and 100-degree days.