Arborvitae turning golden brown

[dpld]

Originally Posted by 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?? if it were spider mites they would not be on it if it were yellow they would have long moved on to the fresh green ones next to it because if there is no chlorophyl in the leaves they will have no food source. on the green one next to it see if they have little yellow tips on the ends of the foliage and if so look on the back side of the leaf and you should see a little black dot where the yellow tip meets the green, that will be arborvitae leaf minor it is not catystrophic to the plant and as i said check the live ones up stream for the mites and if it cooled down they will work their way back towards the interior of the tree and the paper test won't be effective until the heat of the day when the sun is baking it. the hotter and drier it gets the mite populations skyrocket as well as are far more active and they generally will start at one end and work their way accross unless the problem existed for a couple seasons. my first guess would be the plant at issue is the closest to the heat and by heat i also mean rocks patios and structures where the light reflects off of it as well as when the stone or structure heats up it gets hotter in the general area more so then if it were in the middle of a lawn. from a disease perspective it could be a tip blight (phomopsis) but arborvitae is relatively resistant to it. thats about it other then nutrient defficency.

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Last edited by dpld; 07-24-2012 at 07:25 PM.

[wat5150]

Lawn care business tips

Yeah. Its just strange. I guess it could have a deficiency that the others dont. The only other thing I can think of is some kind of root damage. I put a new perennial garden in near that line of trees. There were a few roots here and there but that tree isnt even the closest to that new garden so I doubt I affected any of its roots.

[branchoutshrub]

Arborvitaes are wonderful trees/shrubs for hedges. Great money makers for us. Trimming and keeping them looking sharp is fun. Before and after pictures work well for us on selling our services. Plus there are some hard winters and occasionally some need to be replaced.