Dying Arbor Vitae - Ask Extension
When we moved into our home there were a number of trees planted for an arbor vitae and they were doing just fine. We didn't do anything to care for t...
Knowledgebase
Dying Arbor Vitae #298714
Asked January 29, 2016, 12:24 PM EST
When we moved into our home there were a number of trees planted for an arbor vitae and they were doing just fine. We didn't do anything to care for them since they were well established. We decided to finish out the arbor vitae and so bought some emerald cypress trees and planted them. Within months they were all a burnt orange color and seemingly dead. Some of them have only half the tree this way, but most are completely orange/brown. Now our formally healthy trees that were established upon moving in are starting to get a brown/orange tint to them.
Any ideas about what is happening?
How do I find someone that can come look at our arbor vitae and help us get it right??
Marion County Oregon
Expert Response
Could be a lot of different causes to why your trees are dead. There is a common root rot problem that could be spreading to your other trees:
http://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/arborvitae-thuja-occidentalis-root-rot
I am going to refer this to a more local person and see if they might want to do a site visit.
http://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/arborvitae-thuja-occidentalis-root-rot
I am going to refer this to a more local person and see if they might want to do a site visit.
Hi:
It could also simply be drought stress. If this damage has appeared within the last few months, they may be casualties of the very warm, very dry summer of 2015. I've observed dieback on well-established arborvitae hedges this fall and winter which had not shown this injury before. If you want to contact me directly at the email address below and send along some pictures I can get a better sense for the cause.
It could also simply be drought stress. If this damage has appeared within the last few months, they may be casualties of the very warm, very dry summer of 2015. I've observed dieback on well-established arborvitae hedges this fall and winter which had not shown this injury before. If you want to contact me directly at the email address below and send along some pictures I can get a better sense for the cause.
I am attaching some pictures for additional review and input. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me.
I've seen a lot of this. When did the symptoms begin to appear?
We planted them in April last year and started seeing them turn about a month later. We have some other well established trees right next to these newly planted ones that weren't affected or at least don't appear to be affected.
We have just dug all these out and have replacement ones ready to go in the ground so trying to avoid the same thing happening again.
We have just dug all these out and have replacement ones ready to go in the ground so trying to avoid the same thing happening again.
Hmm. The fact that they were planted that early and immediately started showing symptoms like that makes me wonder of they had dried out in the pots at some point, prior to being planted. It was quite warm and dry in March and April last year and depending on the size of the shrubs and the size of the pot this could easily have happened, even prior to purchase. Conifers do not "wilt" and so they can dry out symptomlessly, and the symptoms then show up quite a bit later. A month or so would not be unusual. And the browning your observed would be the way they responded to drying out in this way. So I just put this out there as an explanation of the symptoms and their timing. Unless they were literally under water after planting (which with the lackj of any rain last April is unlikely), or the roots were damaged by vole feeding (let me know if this was a potential issue), this seems to be the most likely explanation for their swift demise.
