Nature Hills Gardening Community

Hi,

Last year in June I planted 15 - 2 foot arborvitaes to in my back yard.  I live in southern Montana. All winter they looked green and fine.  I watered them this spring because it is so dry in our area.  After the watering it seemed that they had started to turn brown and are brittle.  Week after week they seem worse and worse.  I can't understand what is causing them to brown out!  I gave them fertilizer spikes thinking they needed some extra food, but that has done nothing.  Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong? 

help - Suzanne

 Hi Suzanne,

 Welcome to our community! I am afraid I can't really offer any more input, it sounds like you are handling the trees properly, however the fact that their conditioning is worsening isn't a good sign. Are all 15 of them looking the same or are some of them greener than others? Have you had much precipitation recently? In your back yard, where do you have them planted - do they get plenty of sun? how is the soil in the area they are planted in?

Again, it is hard to say what's going on with them, if all 15 of them are browning and getting worse after being green, it could be a soil, climate or some type of disease issue.
 

Hi there,

About 3 out of the 15 are not fully brown.  I am going to take them back to Lowe's and see if I can replace them and try again.  The soil they are in is an alkline soil, they also get full sun.  It is very dry in our area - for the last 10 or more years, this particular area of Montana has been experiencing drought.  That is why I got the hose out in Feb/Mar. and gave them a watering. 

Any other suggestions?

I'm going to look into what else I could plant to create privacy. 

Thanks for your time.

Suzanne