Arborvitae turning golden brown

[wat5150]

I have 14 arborvitae(5 emerald green and 9 rocket hybrid cedars) on my property. They are used on the lawn border as a screen. Anyway 1 of the 5 emerald greens is turning brown. Its not the crispy dead brown but more like the golden brown they turn in the winter. It is defenitely struggling. I cant find any bug infestation. If it were an infestation or even a disease at least the others that it is touching would most likely be affected too. I looked really quick around the base of the tree and I cant find anything there either(like something burrowing or messing with the roots. Any ideas as to what this may be? Id really like to save it seeing as how they are all about 15ft high now. Replacing it would suck and would take a while before the new one ever caught up.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

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First thing that I would do NOW is water the heck out of it. Probably the weakest of all of them. Lay the hose there near the base and just let it trickle

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[dpld]

Originally Posted by The Cleaning Doctor

First thing that I would do NOW is water the heck out of it. Probably the weakest of all of them. Lay the hose there near the base and just let it trickle

if a emerald green arborvitae is golden brown, all the water on the planet is not gonna change a thing. it is dead.

how old is these plants? when were they planted? are there any hard surfaces like stone or concrete or ashpalt near by?

generally evergreens show the signs of damage well after the fact and by the time they look necrotic it is usually too late.

outside of damage from planting or transporting the most common pests are spider mites, red spider mites, leaf tip borer and bagworm.

unless you got the cacoons hanging off of it it is not the bagworm.

take a white piece of paper and go to the closest live one down from the dead one and shake the branch over the paper vigorously enough to knock off what little bugs were on it.
if you see some little tiny super small critters scurrying about then you got mites and if they are red you got red spider mites and if they are small and oval shaped then you got europhide mites.

all of which are very small and by small i mean the size of a grain of salt or sugar or even fine ground black pepper and a magnifying glass helps.

[brian'slawncare]

I have 18 arborvitae around my pool. 12 emerald green and 5 spring grove. They all need watering for a good 10-15 minutes every week. That's the problem, lack of water...

[Hedgemaster]

The only good arb is a dead arb.


I hope you can save it because it's a b1tch when you have to try and match one up when one dies, but damn, I hate those things. Once they get over 6' tall they are nothing but trouble.

I replaced several dead ones at a local business last year. I think there was some sort of worm that killed them. They were about ten feet tall and the tallest I could find to replace them was six foot.

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by dpld

if a emerald green arborvitae is golden brown, all the water on the planet is not gonna change a thing. it is dead.

how old is these plants? when were they planted? are there any hard surfaces like stone or concrete or ashpalt near by?

generally evergreens show the signs of damage well after the fact and by the time they look necrotic it is usually too late.

outside of damage from planting or transporting the most common pests are spider mites, red spider mites, leaf tip borer and bagworm.

unless you got the cacoons hanging off of it it is not the bagworm.

take a white piece of paper and go to the closest live one down from the dead one and shake the branch over the paper vigorously enough to knock off what little bugs were on it.
if you see some little tiny super small critters scurrying about then you got mites and if they are red you got red spider mites and if they are small and oval shaped then you got europhide mites.

all of which are very small and by small i mean the size of a grain of salt or sugar or even fine ground black pepper and a magnifying glass helps.

Is anyone else itchy now?

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by Apex Lawn & Landscape

Dpid nailed it...bagworms are in right now, just pulled 3 dead arbs from a property because of them. The white paper trick works. Hedge don't be so hard on the Arborvitea's ! They are huge money makers for us..I call them job security trees. Customers always want them planted, wether it be a single one or 14 for a natural fence...they are not hearty whatsoever...they always call back and need work on them, replaced or tied up, they aren't to expensive so they're a good double your money tree ( if your tight with your nursery). They get me goin each spring because of the beating they take during winter. Only thing I hate about them is the small cuts they leave when wrestling them.

Oh, absolutely. They are a landscaper's pot 'O gold because they are HORRIBLE plants that don't hold up, yet everyone WANTS them. LOL!

[wat5150]

Totally disagree with them being horrible plants. These are almost 8 years old and never a problem and we do have some nasty winters up here. Anyway its the only one out of the bunch. The rest look awesome. Water is not the issue. I looked at it today. No spider mites that I could see. None fell off or showed up on paper. If it were a parasite I would think all of them would be getting it. Maybe its diseased but it touches the others. I would think if it is in contact with the ones right next to it the disease could be transferred??

[xandrew245x]

I have about 10 of these lining my back yard and they are over 10 ft tall, I'm surprised they look so good with the lack of rain here.

[wat5150]

If they are that big like mine then they have a pretty good established root system. That helps them survive drought.