Conifer brown

[dave7108]

My conifer seems to have a few brown patches Will these recover, is there anything I can do? I'm unsure to keep the tree now or to remove it if it gets worse and looks unsightly.

[Simpo Two]

I would say drought. If you water it it will live, but the dead bits will always be dead.

[Panamax]

Yup, get some heavy watering going. Over time, it will come back to you, especially if you cut out the dead bits in Spring 2027.

[dave7108]

I had the hose on itast week for half hour gave it a proper drenching. Would you take it out or leave it? Thoughts please !

[cliffords]

Many of ours have gone the same way . I believe they did a couple of years ago and then recovered in the rain we had in autumn, winter and spring.
I did cut off a few dead bits but not to any degree.
I expect it will return

[Randy Winkman]

Simpo Two said:

I would say drought. If you water it it will live, but the dead bits will always be dead.

They will indeed. I'd start by cutting out about a quarter of the dead bits (right back to green growth) to see what happens. Plus watering.

[Kawasaki90]

Those brown bits will stay brown, I’ve had 50foot of them removed as half were dead, I gave them 7 years to recover…..

[dave7108]

It's a nice looking tree but starts to look unsightly. I do find conifers can be very prone to disease.

[borcy]

I'd chop it down. I think they look unsightly in normal gardens.

[Simpo Two]

dave7108 said:

I had the hose on itast week for half hour gave it a proper drenching.

If the hose was full blast it's likely the water just ran away to somewhere else. Bone dry soil is hydrophobic. If you want to keep it, it needs a slow trickle overnight so the water has time to sink down to where the roots are. If the ground slopes, build a little dam from soil.

[gt40steve]

Kawasaki90 said:

Those brown bits will stay brown, I ve had 50foot of them removed as half were dead, I gave them 7 years to recover ..

That's my experience also. The only way to hide the brown bits or fill the gaps if you remove the brown bits, is to let the green parts grow much bigger. A comb over ! So the tree would end up larger, unless the disease spreads & the whole thing goes brown. They often get this brown disease after they have been trimmed. I don't think it is lack of water personally.

[steveo3002]

in my experience brown bits never come back and you cant trim them back to the brown and have it recover

chop it down before its massive and get something nicer

[The Three D Mucketeer]

steveo3002 said:

in my experience brown bits never come back and you cant trim them back to the brown and have it recover

chop it down before its massive and get something nicer

+1 I hate Leylandii get a nice Yew tree or Blue Spruce instead

Edited by The Three D Mucketeer on Monday 3rd August 09:48

[mcelliott]

Awful thing, ether windburn or at some point been cut back too hard, won t recover so get rid