Leyland Cypress turning brown

[Brian7070]

I have a 6-7 year old Leyland Cypress that is about 20-25ft tall. It has never had any problems, but over the past few weeks it has started to turn brown on the inside near the trunk. It has also started dropping lots of dead needles. It has been a little drier the past few weeks, but nothing extreme, and it has never turned brown in the past. I am not sure if it has some disease or pest. I included some pictures. Please help

Thanks

 

[sac-climber]

Leyland Cypress can get Botryosphaeria canker seemingly out of nowhere. That's what it looks like to me.

Drought stress and heat are predisposing factors. We removed about a 200' hedge row of these that all succumbed at a property about a year ago. I still have dust that blows through my AC vents from that job!

 

[Brian7070]

Leyland Cypress can get Botryosphaeria canker seemingly out of nowhere. That's what it looks like to me.

Drought stress and heat are predisposing factors. We removed about a 200' hedge row of these that all succumbed at a property about a year ago. I still have dust that blows through my AC vents from that job!

Thanks for the reply, is there anything can do, or is my tree going to eventually die?

 

[derwoodii]

Thanks for the reply, is there anything can do, or is my tree going to eventually die?

not much your tree may or may not recover just read over below

http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=B1229

 

[sac-climber]

^^^^ +1

Ensure adequate irrigation, there really are no effective treatments other than cultural changes. You can prune out the dead stuff for asthetics if you like.

 

[Raintree]

I would not diagnose from only a few pics, too many other things come into play. Fungal canker is a good guess so the first thing is to look for the symptoms on the declining branches. (see derwoodii link) Since no terminal branch ends are dead & would suggest an abiotic disorder rather than a biotic issue.

 

[treeseer]

UGA overstated; Paclobutrazol can help. So can sanitation and other cultural treatments, as they mention.

Some (biotic) diseases show signs from the inside out.

 

[Raintree]

Some (biotic) diseases show signs from the inside out.

Since we are talking about Leyland Cypress please enlighten us.

 

[sac-climber]

UGA overstated; Paclobutrazol can help. So can sanitation and other cultural treatments, as they mention.

Some (biotic) diseases show signs from the inside out.

+1
Spores can spread by overhead irrigation. We get Botryosphaeria on Redwood here and often see only or mostly inner branches affected.

 

[derwoodii]

some say potash can improve vigor fungal disease resistance thou im not sure it can be used as a cure ideally needed to be there prior problem to combat ever present pathogens

 

[hokiejane]

Having the same problem here in northern Maryland for the first time. When I was in southern PA a few weeks ago, I noticed some had it really bad, and was happy mine weren't showing signs. Then a few weeks later...

 

[treeseer]

It never hurts to remove dead tissue. Improves air movement, decreases inoculum.

Please post a pic of the upper roots growing off of the stem.