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Why are my Conifers dying from the bottom up
Nans Garden
Posts: 10
Hi Everyone,
Just another quick question on the forum. I have planted these conifers approx 2/3yrs ago and for the first and second season they grew quite happily but now as you can see they seem to be dying from the ground up. Can anyone shed any light on this for me please? Ive heard there's supposed to be some sort of disease affecting conifers do my conifers look like they have this disease?
Many thanks for any advice.
0
Posts
The ground looks very dry indeed - have they been watered during this dry spell?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the advice I have watered them a little in this dry spell but obviously not sufficient so I will make sure they get a good drink on a regular basis do you think I should pop some liquid fertilizer on too?
My conifers too appear to be dying this year, after being well established for over 15 years. My husband has chopped down two single standing specimens & found them to be completely brown & dried up in the centre despite the ground being well watered by the good old Yorkshire weather. Looking down from the bedroom window our long conifer hedge has also gone completely brown in the centre. It looks as though they are dying from the middle out. I too would like to know if there is some kind of conifer blight & is it going to affect any other plants or trees as I have a beautiful purple beech tree not far from the hedge & it would break my heart if anything happened to that.
Nan's Garden
- a little water is worse than no water at all because it encourages the roots to the surface where they get scorched, rather than growing downwards as they should. I would give those trees 2-3 buckets of water each today, and then one bucket of water each every other day until the cooler autumn weather arrives. I'd also give them a small amount of Fish Blood and Bone which is a slow-release organic fertiliser, and a full dose (according to the pack) in the early spring.
Dormayd
Most conifers are brown in the middle - they only have green leaves where they can photosynthesise sunlight.
This information may be helpful
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile?PID=132
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dovefromabove I will definitely do that now thank you.
Or turn the hose on them for half an hour once a week.
I feel I should correct Mikes rather dodgy post, what religion has to do with your conifers who knows?!
Your suffering conifers appear to be leylandii, which have shallow fibrous roots systems not deep as Mike suggests.
The soil around them appears loose and dry as has been pointed out, lack of water has probably been a large factor here. Unfortunately, leylandii don't regrow from that brown dying area.
Don't you think a nice tightly clipped holly hedge would look good there? The soil would need improving first though.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.