Hey Guys,

 

Any landscapers in here?

Do you think this tree can be saved? Dont know what happened to it, its twin on the other side is fine.

It has plenty of leaves on it, just brown.

Any suggestions or help?

I can't help because I have no experience in botany. But it looks like somebody painted it? I've never seen that color on an Arb or any other tree. Maybe I need to check my monitor settings for color...

I have seen arborvitaes (spelling) in this color but only after the winter when it was exposed to salt for melting snow. If this is the case then the tree is pretty much dead. To me it looks diseased. If you want , try keeping it until next year and see if it greens up next season.

How does that tree get water? It's in a pretty tiny plot in the middle of a whole lot of pavement and concrete.

 

Like I said, I don't know anything about trees. It caught my eye because I look for this type of stuff. My work often involves hydrology and also overburden hydrogeology. And I always note pavement and cover. It looks like the live tree might get water from the unpaved slope next to it.

That thing is deader than a doornail. Sorry but it needs to come out.

Arborvitae are usually pretty hard to kill. I agree with the ice melt theory. I would remove the tree though. They are in a bad place. Anywhere near black top is hard to keep them from drying out.

AS the others have said, it's dead, pull it and if you want to put another one there I'd say if you have a sprinkler system put a drip head there. Also if it caught something or the soil was contaminated I'd say dig out a good amount of soil and put some new good stuff there.

 

Harry

How would ice melt get to it? Is somebody putting ice melt into the planter? The thing is sitting inside a spill containment berm LOL

That thing is mulch!!! I'd say salt got it from a snowblower.Another thing that attacks these are mites. You should spray it every spring and fall with Ortho® MAX® Malathion Insect Spray Concentrate.But to tell you the truth I would just pave over that spot as it requires special care to grow a plant there.

I think that might be a variety of False Cypress (Hinoki?), would need a close up pic to be sure. Either way it's dead, needled evergreens will not recover from that level of browning. I'm a little surprised it lasted that long confined in such a small planter. Large plants don't usually fair well in such tight space, not enough water and too much soil compaction around it. Also get rid of the white stone under your evergreens, this is a type of limestone that will sweeten the soil, evergreens need acidic soil.

I agree, Dead. We had a couple trees die over here from the winter which normally never had issues. They seemed to be the trees that didn't have deep roots.

It is surrounded by hot rocks. Doomed from the start.

Lets see-

*poor location to receive any rain water

*poor location to receive any nourishment from the natural soil for healthy root growth

*gets roasted in the summer from the heat reflection off blacktop and house

*exposure to winter salts/chemicals and any toxic minerals from the stone

I think its time to quit, get a nice planter with some ivy/flora that can be easily watered from the hose or a can. Not sure how it even grew there, must hae been planted as a mature speciman?

An annual spike type plant might do ok there .Ornamental grasses would never survive the winter salt and hostas would cook.

Those 2 trees have been there for 7+ years that I am aware of. They came with the house.

 

Watering them never seemed to be a problem since we have been here.

 

I did get a lot of snow this winter, did a lot of snow blowing. Perhaps it is possible that calcium chloride got in on the base. I never use salt. Could calcium chloride be the problem?

 

Anything possible to reverse the browning? Before I cut it down, I would like to try what I can.

make a ghillie suit out of it.

Anything possible to reverse the browning? Before I cut it down, I would like to try what I can.

 

Short of calling up Jesus to do a "raise Lazarus from the dead" thing - no, you will not be able to "reverse the browning".

 

It's a zombie man - just shoot it in the head and move on.

Those 2 trees have been there for 7+ years that I am aware of. They came with the house.

 

Watering them never seemed to be a problem since we have been here.

 

I did get a lot of snow this winter, did a lot of snow blowing. Perhaps it is possible that calcium chloride got in on the base. I never use salt. Could calcium chloride be the problem?

 

Anything possible to reverse the browning? Before I cut it down, I would like to try what I can.

It's dead, there's no saving it now. Calcium Chloride is no better for your plants then Sodium Chloride (salt) since it's the Chloride part that adversely affects plants.

 

Plants die for a variety of reasons, this plant would have been under a lot of stress due to it's location and it would not have taken too much else to kill it off. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. We also had a brutal winter, always a lot of fatalities in the plant world after a bad winter.

I guess you guys haven't noticed, but there are a lot of Arborvitae and Spruce trees around that have recently died! I just lost 3 Arborvitae that were about 40 yrs old and a 60' Spruce that was 38 yrs. old. My neighbor just lost 2 Spruce trees. I think it had something to do with the drought we had last Summer (?).

I guess you guys haven't noticed, but there are a lot of Arborvitae and Spruce trees around that have recently died! I just lost 3 Arborvitae that were about 40 yrs old and a 60' Spruce that was 38 yrs. old. My neighbor just lost 2 Spruce trees. I think it had something to do with the drought we had last Summer (?).

Not really there are a few lawsuits going against dow at the moment for a chemical called Imprelis that is thought to have killed many spruce trees by accident.Want to learn more read here.

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=353005

It's a zombie man - just shoot it in the head and move on.

 

Double tap

It's a zombie man - just shoot it in the head and move on.

 

Rule #2 Double tap

 

Fixed.

 

Anything possible to reverse the browning? Before I cut it down, I would like to try what I can.

 

Other than Green Paint, don't think so.

 

Harry