Question
Damage backside of eas
Live in Crown Point Indiana. Our one hedge of arborvitae (arborvitae or
arborvities?), 37, on the backside (neighbor's view) of the east side hedge
have a solid brown dead leaves & branches from the bottom to 3 ft. high.
They are 15 yrs. old, line both sides(E&W) of backyard (South) of our lake lot.
On Tues. 9/23/8 after heavy rains checked all landscaping,
arborvitaes(arborvities?)were fine. Sun.,9/28/8 mowing lawn noticed the
backside of all of the east side hedge (15ft.) on the bottom 3 ft. was dead
but the 2 Thorn Apple trees were fine. We have been maintaining (only
necessary trimming) the backside of our trees since they were planted. Now
they are browning/dyeing from the back to the front but the browning is a
different pattern, not solid like the backside but sporadic until it is
completely dead. Please tell me what caused the complete solid pattern on
the backside and the different pattern through the rest of the bottom of the
trees.
I began to see the sporadic pattern spreading so I had my husband power
wash the trees from top to bottom, remove all the dead (including mulch)
down to the dirt. Forgot that on Sat.9/27, I saw some browning on the
bottom of a tree (couldn't see thru to the solid dead leaves yet) so I trimmed
them off then went to the other side hedge to trim the tree at the gate. This
tree is now showing sporadic browning. So we (husband) cleaned this side
also. Can you please help us with our problems, the worse is the east side
hedge which now you can see completely through the bottom 3ft. of it.
What caused these two patterns of death? And what can we do now in order
to encourage new growth on the bottom and to stabilize/preserve our trees?
Sending pics, backside of east hedge front side.
AnswerHi there. Lets start with the easiest possibility. Due to the uniform pattern in the pic I would guess herbicide damage. Has there been any lawn care in the area? If not than we can pursue this further. Thanks,Bill
The only compensation we get for spending hours answering question after question is our feedback rating. You almost wrote a book and as I managed to muddle through it. All I asked was that we start 1st with the PICTURE you sent. You people don't realize how hard it is sometimes to diagnose via Internet. I politely asked you a question about the picture and we could have moved on from there but instead you hit me with a 5 on knowledge.That is a total insult to my 32 years experience in the Arboricultural field. To all you other folks out there who have gone through the process of Q&A with me thanks for the great feedback. At least most people appreciate the VOLUNTEER work we do. Bill
