I am definately not an expert as you all are, but I had a yellowing and then black-ing of branches last year on "berkman's gold". Some suspicion was dog's urine, other - too humid - we had lots of rain. One of the things I did is sprinkle magnesium sulfate around the base and work it into the soil. And of course I had to dig down and amend the clay soil with better draining mixture of manure and store bought bag of "trees and shrubs soil". The tree is doing great this year, healthy with new cones.

Hooray for rain and snow? in LA. I bet that doesn't happen very often down low. Good you water about once a week, but lack of water can still be an issue if the roots are not well established in the soil or if they have rotted and died for some reason. I have seen Italian Cypress growing well in Asheville, NC and thought that was definite zone pushing. They do have some cold tolerance so I doubt your cold is the problem. All about spider mites. Spider mites - indoors (missouribotanicalgarden.org)

Well, it's been a while since I contributed to this thread. I tried planting the Tiny Tower Monshel Italian Cypress trees and they were doing fine until the temperatures reached 115 degrees. The problem in my case is that there is so much concrete and the heat reflected from the water from the pool literally baked them in just one day. It was like they were freeze dried but more like "oven bake-dried" when the summer came. God, I was do upset over that. I planted them in the Fall and they did so well throughout the Fall, winter and Spring. After that failure I got a hold of some Skyrocket Junipers and was hoping I could trim them and keep them skinny and columnar-like in their narrow space. I was assured by the nursery owner that they would do well and that they grow just fine out in the desert. But the same thing happened. I planted them in the Fall and they did great but come the following summer, all but four of them fried in the heat. It's because of all the concrete and reflection of heat off the water from the pool that did them in. No one was able to teach me this. What a burning hard lesson to learn about how hot it is here and "reflected heat" from concrete surfaces. The four that did not die were the ones that received afternoon shade next to a fenced wall that is eight feet tall. I was even more upset and in tears the second time around. Actually I cried both times. I love planting tries and have done so in other parts of the country. I have never had one die on me. So to lose seventeen Monshel Tiny tower trees all at once and about eleven Skyrocket Junipers in a similar way was a lot to lose. Not to mention, since the Junipers were spaced differently due to their growth habits I redid the entire irrigation system a second time before planting them. So, I tried to really think about what could handle the extreme heat and reflected heat around all the concrete and also handle the reflection of sun and heat off the water from the pool. Then I thought of some of the boulevard type streets here in the desert that have plants and trees that are surrounded by asphalt and get direct hot summer sun all day long. Most of the plants these areas have are different types of agaves which I didn't want because the space is too narrow and I wanted something with some height and something that I could shape and trim. Not to mention, agaves tend to have spiky points which can pose as a hazard along a narrow sidewalk. Getting back to the planted boulevard streets, I noticed how well pencil cactus plants were popping up and being planted in these areas on highway streets exposed to rock, gravel and asphalt and all day long with no shade or relief from the sun. And they all looked great. Then I remembered I also had two pencil cactus in large pots that I bought from the nursery that I was neglecting for two summers that were doing well and growing and thriving in full sun all day long with the pot sitting directly on concrete. I bought them at a nursery but wasn't sure what to do with them yet. So I thought to give them a try around the pool. I had to redo the irrigation yet AGAIN due to their spacing being different but I was fine with that. So far, all but one survived over a year's time. I think the one that died might have struggled due to the metal pool shed reflecting way too much heat back at the furthest pencil cactus planted to the right. I plan to drape some shade fabric over that area come summer to eliminate the reflected heat from metal; which is more intense than reflected heat from concrete/stone. I'm pretty sure that's why that one died. And now you see a new smaller pencil cactus I just replaced this past winter to take it's place in the photo below. Today is April 1st in fact which is when this photo was taken. What I like about these pencil cactus is that they turn a bright orange pink salmon color in the Fall, winter and Spring. Come summer they will turn a bright chartreuse green from top to bottom. I have to admit I wish they'd stay orange-pink all year long. But it's cool to watch the colors change throughout the year. Here are some photos: With the exception of the one I replaced they have grown nearly twice in size. I read somewhere that they can grow two feet a year in the beginning but their growth will start to slow down as they mature over the years. The more water I give them the faster they grow. During the summer I give them a good drink twice a week and in the winter I give them water once a week; all through underground drip irrigation on an irrigation timer. I just recently trimmed up the bottoms of all of them because they were so bushy and branches were falling over the flagstone edge. I had tons of trimmings which filled a large compost garbage bin completely. I tried to give them away for free as cuttings on craigslist but no one wanted them. :-( I'm going to trim them regularly so that they take on a somewhat columnar shape. I don't want them to completely cover up/block the wall. I look forward to them reaching 6'-8' tall by about 2'-3' wide which is easily doable. I see them around Palm Springs quite a bit and they all seem to thrive anywhere they're growing. I think they're really attractive. I have two growing in my front yard that I am letting grow naturally. They are nearly 5' wide and tall in just three years! I just wanted to share my experience with planting around lots of concrete. "Reflected heat" in the desert is a real thing and the temps around all concrete can actually be hotter than the ambient temperature. I can feel it when I stick my hands close to or stand right next to concrete walls. Not to mention, the concrete can still hold a lot of heat even as the sun starts to go down. This is something not even the most knowledgeable nursery grower could have taught me to save me a ton of grief and heartache. And getting back to my comment earlier about seeing Italian Cypress trees doing well out here throughout the area, as I inspect them more closely I see that they are planted far away from concrete walls and/or are surrounded by grass which obviously helps tremendously to keep the trees cooler and protected. I hope my long-winded rant here helps other people in the desert who are eager to plant something but not waste time, sweat, blood tears and a lot of money like I did. And to be thorough, yes I know that the sap can be an extreme irritant to eyes and skin. Just wear gloves and a long sleeved shirt when trimming pencil cactus up. Don't touch your face ever and change and wash your clothes immediately after you're done. In fact, take a complete shower afterwards. Like I already mentioned, I did a serious pruning on the bottoms of my pencil cacti and had no issues. The sap touched my skin and didn't cause me problems. I think it's more of an issue if you have scraped/injured skin or open cuts. You don't want the sap to get into open wounds

It's amazing to me that it's still not obvious to people that they need to give some indication of where in the world they are...