Italian Cypress Trees in AZ Need Some Help

[asubobbo]

Hi! First post here, looking forward to hearing your advice. Admittedly I am a novice, so please be blunt with any advice, I can take it.

I have 5 Italian cypress trees, they are roughly 30ft tall and 10 years old. They get significant direct sun in the morning/early afternoon before being shaded by the neighbor's house the rest of the day.

This summer for the first time I have started to get some significant browning on parts of them (mostly towards the bottom of the trees). It has been an extra hot summer here in AZ, but it has also been a pretty active monsoon season so we have had significant rain, on top of my standard watering schedule.

In addition there is one tree which has started to bend over (you can see this in the pictures). I have since staked this one to stabilize but I obviously know I shouldn't have to do that at this point in their lives.

I have examined them for mites and don't see any.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or if I can provide any additional information I am leaving out to help.

Thanks!

- Bob

 

[Jackbnimble]

Hi! First post here, looking forward to hearing your advice. Admittedly I am a novice, so please be blunt with any advice, I can take it.

I have 5 Italian cypress trees, they are roughly 30ft tall and 10 years old. They get significant direct sun in the morning/early afternoon before being shaded by the neighbor's house the rest of the day.

This summer for the first time I have started to get some significant browning on parts of them (mostly towards the bottom of the trees). It has been an extra hot summer here in AZ, but it has also been a pretty active monsoon season so we have had significant rain, on top of my standard watering schedule.

In addition there is one tree which has started to bend over (you can see this in the pictures). I have since staked this one to stabilize but I obviously know I shouldn't have to do that at this point in their lives.

I have examined them for mites and don't see any.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or if I can provide any additional information I am leaving out to help.

Thanks!

- BobView attachment 598581 View attachment 598578 View attachment 598579 View attachment 598580

I will say this. If you follow my recommendations, you'll likely lose everything you have. Your neighbors, too. I'm the Click And Clack of giving advice guaranteed not to be of much value.


"The Italian Cypress is drought-tolerant and needs to dry out between waterings. Too much water or soil with poor drainage will cause the tree to turn brown and can also cause root rot. Too little water will also cause browning."

From what you wrote, it sounds as if they may be receiving too much water. I understand it's been brutally hot there this summer, but you are now headed into the season with the most beautiful weather on earth.

BTW, how is the soil in the area where they are planted? Does it have good drainage? Does water have a tendency to pool up along the side of the house?

 

[BC WetCoast]

Have you seen any mushrooms at the base of the tree.

That is looking to me suspiciously like the beginning of armillaria root rot infection. Do a google search and determine whether what you see matches symptoms provided.

Italian cypress is also susceptible to photopthora root rot infection.

See where I'm heading here, I think you have a root problem.

 

[Jason Douglas]

Mediterranean plant, lay off the water

 

[asubobbo]

Thanks for all the responses, sorry for disappearing after posting.

So a little extra background to answer a few questions -

The soil is pretty heavy in clay, however water does not pool up in the yard next to the house - there is good drainage out of my yard through the brick walls in case of a big rain storm.

Checked out armillaria root rot infection, and I don't think this is the case, and there are no mushrooms.

I stopped by a local nursery today to talk to them also and the lady I spoke with gave me a watering guide after explaining my situation. It states (during the summer months when the temp is over 100 down here) that a tree this size should be getting 8-14 gallons of water 3x/week (or 2x if soil is clay heavy, as mine is). Going on the assumption that italian cypresses generally need less water than most plants/trees from what I understand, let's for the moment say 8 gallons.

I just checked how much water my irrigation system is actually producing - roughly 1.5 cups/minute per tree.

Help me double check my math...

- 8 gallons = 128 cups (16 cups per gallon)
- at 1.5 cups/min that would need the system running ~85 minutes to disperse 8 gallons.

I (from previous "advice") have only been watering them once a week for a 35 minutes at a time - 52.5 cups or 3.3 gallons (adjusted up a bit more in the summer and down a bit in the winter).

Turns out I might be grossly under-watering them??

So she suggested I do the increased 2x watering for 2 weeks (plus she sold me on some volcanic ash fertilizer - figured it couldn't hurt and was only $9), check that the soil fully dries out between watering, and see if that makes a difference.

Any thoughts about this? I really feel like a doofus for having these trees for so long and not really understanding how to properly care for them. Thanks again.

 

[Jackbnimble]

"...but it has also been a pretty active monsoon season so we have had significant rain, on top of my standard watering schedule."

That's why I thought the trees might be getting too much water. Good luck.