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Dying Arborvitae - z7

12 years ago

I need help determining what is happening to my arborvitae. I planted two about a year and half ago and one is doing fine. Both were until about a month ago. They have received plenty of rain lately and I have watered each the same during droughts. I added liquid fertilizer when I first noticed the brownness and have also sprayed for mites but nothing has improved. I am attaching a photograph and would appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance

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Comments (6)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
no pic

why would a stressed tree need fert???

were there actually any mites on it.. or were you winging it??

when you planted.. did you bare root and untangle roots??

what is your native soil ....

bigboxstore??/

ken
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
please dont send any more pix to my email ..

link below for tutorial on posting pix

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link
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Hi Ken, Thanks so much for helping me diagnose the problem with our arborvitae trees. Sorry for the delay in my response. I have attached a close-up picture. We have been watering the trees about twice a week - a gallon or two of water each time. It seemed to be an average CO winter - it snowed on and off. The snow would not last more than a day or two with out melting off. It got below freezing overnight but it would warm up during the day - average days in the 40s and it would get down to 20 or below at night. It seems like the browning started early Spring. It's clay soil, and when we planted them, we dug a hole two times the size of the root ball and mixed fertilized gardening soil in with the clay soil. There is some browning on the side of the plants that face the fence (the south side), but not as much. We are unsure if they were root-bound upon planting - how can you tell? The lawn is not sprayed where the trees are growing. We did not use landscape fabric underneath the stone. Do you think it's a watering issue? Based on our research, it seems they are either getting too much water (which seems unlikely), not enough water (which might be the case), or some kind of fungus/disease is causing the problem. More recently, we have been watering them more in the past week to see if that helps, yet we aren't seeing a change - or does it take several days for them to green up if that's the problem? What do you advise we do? Thanks!!
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When I established them I used a soaker hose for a month or two. If I remember correctly they did not appear to be root bound at all. As for fertilizer - they have probably gotten some "over spray" from when I fertilize the lawn but I have not deliberately fertilized them otherwise. I do a late fall fertilizer for the lawn and I'm sure some of that gets to them as well. Should I avoid them when I fertilize?? I have a bunch of others that are outside the reach of my broadcast spreader that have grown similarly - and are growing well. The back sides seem to be the same in terms of browning. The foliage on the back sides get very thick in the late spring/summer so the back sides of all of them have thinner growth. I've never had the lawn sprayed. Is it possible that the sprinklers wetting the leaves are damaging them? -JIm
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jddawg37
Original Author
12 years ago
I appreciate the assistance I have received and will, hopefully, be able to save this one arborvitae. Unfortunately my help did not come from Ken, who wants to play 20 questions, request a photograph, and then criticize for how he received it. Thanks for the 2 responses you sent full of nothing. I had rather you pass my posts by if you intentions are to criticize rather than help. If I knew all the answers like you pretend to do, I wouldn't be on here posting.
jean001a
12 years ago
When folks on this forum request a picture, they mean for it to be posted here on GardenWeb and in the same thread as the original inquiry.

As for ken and his 20 questions -- Whenever a question about why a plant is dying and/or failing and/or dead, lots of info is needed to ferret out possible answers. Unfortunately, we who try to answer questions posted here and elsewhere, don't yet have ESP; at least, I don't.

So that's why the need for 20 questions and answers. We know only what OP tells us.
jddawg37
Original Author
12 years ago
Ken asked for a photograph in his original response, which I attempted to attach in my original post but it would not allow me. Probably my error somehow. Regardless, replied to the email i received which prompted my response to go to his personal email, which contained the photograph he requested. I sent a photograph, which he requested, to receive a response of "do not send pictures to my email." I respect that but I would prefer no response or, at least a respectful response, which I have received neither from him. I received no help, only negative criticism. Thanks jen for all your help as well. I will continue to seek assistance from those outside this site. I should have known better.
Vicki
12 years ago
For whatever its worth, I haven't had good luck with arborvitae and have had to remove 2 out of 3 I planted. They are very intolerant of windburn. It might be the location of the one as opposed to the other. I've seen oodles of posts here where others have also had mystery problems with some of them browning out. I don't think Ken means to be rude, but he can come across that way sometimes online.

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