A lot of people put bone meal on their gardens and get superb results. We have a cremation plot in our garden, everything flourishes, ashes are only animal bone be it human or animal. You only get the bones back in the urn, the rest is burnt.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Facinating debate - thank you all so much for contributing.
Your picture shows quite a big tree for only having been planted 18 months ago so probably had quite large rootball. I suspect, as others have said, that it suffered from a lack of water during the hot summer of 2022. It clearly has new growth. I would try to keep it well watered this spring and summer.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
The brown I can see seems limited to the sunny side in the pictures, is that correct? If it is then it could be sun or wind damage as the rest looks nice and green.
1. It was watered every few days all though last summer, I have weeded around it regularly and have mulched it with well rotted manure (keeping it away from the stem
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It would have needed a couple of buckets/watering cans each time, poured on slowly so that it soaked into the root zone and didn't run off. Even then it would have been hard to keep a newly planted tree of that size through a hot dry summer like we had last year, so you've done quite well to keep it alive.
The new growth on the ends of the branches looks OK and it's normal for conifers to turn brown and lose needles on the inside. If you can keep up the watering I think it'll survive.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@deborah.russell Over the last two years I have been watering a small conifer it has been a fight and it is much smaller. At long last it has begun to put down roots. With watering it is critical that it gets right down at the roots and I would give it 12 to 16 litres at a time slowly to avoid run off. The surrounding grass must also be keep well away as they will be taking up the moisture.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Re the comments about trees in graveyards…. As I understand it buried bodies don’t cause any issues for plants and trees. It is specifically cremated remains which are described as being 12% salt content and having the PH of bleach!! It also seems that scattered remains don’t cause so much of an issue as putting a concentrated amount in a hole. I am still hoping that this may not be the cause of the trees issues and I have noted others comments re increasing watering and checking for spider mite etc. Thanks everyone for your input.
We put concentrated ashes into a hole and planted a lilac. It’s fine. We placed my fathers ashes in a graveyard in his mothers grave and I believe that is fairly common practice. That means there are a lot of ashes in graveyards I think the problems with the tree are not connected to the ashes. Maybe look elsewhere for a cause.
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We have a cremation plot in our garden, everything flourishes, ashes are only animal bone be it human or animal.
You only get the bones back in the urn, the rest is burnt.
Our local graveyard has some magnificent Redwoods and numerous other trees including a large and aptly named Ailanthus altissima (Tree of Heaven)
I am still hoping that this may not be the cause of the trees issues and I have noted others comments re increasing watering and checking for spider mite etc.
Thanks everyone for your input.
I agree with others that the problem is underwatering.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border