I kept it moist throughout most of its life, but the slow death started long before I started to give up on it. It hasn't grown at all in at least 6 months, just slowly browning or yellowing starting from the tips of the fronds. There's still more than half of it left thats green, but even those parts have brown tips. Guess it's finished.

OK, so those holes could have happened prior to branch death...or after. But what I'm mostly seeing is lower branch die-off due to shading, which is completely normal for these sun-lovers. Another thing that I "think" was being shown in some of the photos is the normal tendency for conifers to have lots of "dead" stuff on the inside of the plant. That is, say you were to look at an apparently perfect spruce tree. Now walk underneath the plant and look up. Not a pretty sight is it? All of that dead twiggage and so on is again just the normal dying off of inner, shaded structures. Not at all a sign of trouble. But here's the thing: IF it's a windbreak you want-and they are good things out in the prairie-you need plants that can handle the conditions. Increasingly, Colorado spruce is not making the grade here. Likewise for Austrian pine. You can't beat this either, excepting by heroic measures which would still ultimately fail as soon as you stopped. I would make one suggestion: If you have space, and by space, I mean an area of sufficient size and one getting close to full sun, plant some Norway spruce. These will grow fast, live long, hold their branches right down to the ground (if not too crowded) and are proving to be the best spruce species for a vast swath of eastern N. America, including Iowa. We could get fancier-and maybe someone here will chime in with some relatively rare pine species. I believe that Bosnian pine, although fairly rare in the marketplace, may be proving to be a better choice for this region as well. What I'm saying is, if this planting consists largely of two hugely problematic species, it may be time to cut your losses and get something good going for the future.

Sorry to tell you, but your tree is definitely dead - or at least in the process of dying. I see you have a bag of fertilizer there. Did you recently fertilize it? Avocados are very sensitive to salt build up and will experience salt burn when you fertilize them. Too much of it will cause necrosis to travel from the roots, up the stem and out toward the tips of the branches. From the looks of it, your tree is experiencing this as the trunk is dead and the extent of dead tissue is progressing toward the branch tips. This is even an issue here where we grow avocados in the ground. A friend of mine sprinkled fertilizer on the surface of the soil near his 10-foot avocado last summer. With all the rain we've had, the fertilizer dissolved and soaked into the ground, causing the avocado to burn and die - a whole 6 months later. It is best to not fertilize young avocado trees at all.

Hello, I inherited my Parlour Palm a little while ago and he means so much to me. But he is really sick and I don't know what to do. He is about 4 years old and up until 3 weeks ago was in the same pot the whole time. He was a really healthy plant until recently, he even flowered and is always growing. However a few months ago he started to look unwell and got mealy bugs - which after a long battle they seem to have gone now. Then about 6 weeks ago he started to look quite unwell. His leaves were drooping with the tips drying up and become yellow. Some of the leaves curling. But he was still growing 2 new fronds at the same time. When I took him out of his old pot, I realised that his roots had grown though the drainage holes and were blocking them, so his bottom soil was really wet - I know this is a big problem for root rot. But I had hoped that by putting him in a new pot, with fresh new soil it would help him recover. For a little while he seemed ok, but now he is worse than ever. The majority of his fronds are drying up significantly and dying, with others appears in strange lighter colour spots - as if he's losing his colour. He now has 3 new fronds growing, but in the past week he has gone down hill quickly and I think they've stopped growing. I can't see any insects or pests, he lives near the brightest window in the house though as it's winter there's not a lot of light lately. As I was over watering him I've cut back but I'm really now sure if I' over watering, under watering, or if it's a different issue entirely. I've also found this small white spot on him. I would be so grateful for any advice or help - my plant is so important to me and I would be devastated if he died. Thank you