Why is my leyland cypress turning brown
Why Are My Leyland Cypress Trees Turning Brown And What Can I Do About It
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Leyland cypress trees make excellent
privacy screens they're thick of bushy
and a grow fast that grows many is four
to six feet per year once their roots
are established and since they're
evergreens they continued to provide
privacy during the winter months when
your deciduous trees loss their leaves
but if you've grown Leyland cypress
trees or if you're growing them now
you'll notice that at times some of
their limbs turn brown there are five
main reasons this happens and we're
gonna discuss those reasons with you and
tell you what you can do about it in
this video okay we have a mature Leyland
cypress tree here that's been on the
property for about 18 years
what we have going on here is you'll see
there's some browning of the needles
starting from the inside working their
way out okay when we first saw this
we've only been on the property for a
couple of years and when we first saw
this we panicked what's going on we did
our research and found out that what
this is called is basic it's called
routine die back evergreen trees of
which Leyland cypress belongs will shed
their needles from time to time so if
your Leyland cypress is browning from
the inside going out especially if it's
an established tree more than likely
it's routine die back and there's
nothing to be concerned with however
there is a condition called needle
blight and it happens from too much
moisture with this particular tree we
might actually have a little bit of both
of these things going on because as you
can see there is a very large Eastern
redcedar here and there's a very large
wild black cherry tree there and this
Leyland cypress tree is beneath both
trees so what happens when it rains
doan also thirdly the Sun is on the
other side of these trees and it goes
across the horizon opposite this tree so
this tree is in constant shade and with
the moisture dripping down from the
other two trees it takes this thing a
while to dry out after we've had
prolonged rain so in the summer months
it dries out quite well and the Browning
turns quite green but my point to the
whole thing about moisture is you can
create needle black on your needles or
on your Leyland cypress trees if you're
over wad
make sure you're not ever watering your
Leyland cypress trees or you'll actually
kill them if you're if you're wondering
if you're watering too much look and see
if you've got brownies going on now the
the natural die back will happen once a
year if it's happening more than once a
year you may be watering your Leland
Cypress too much all right the third
cause of browning of your Leyland
cypress trees has to do with tankers
there are two main types and this is
basically a fungal infection you've got
bot tanker and then you've got Ceridian
tankers they look two different ways
this is an example of Ceridian tankers
Ceridian tanker was discovered in
California not too long ago and it's
been spreading rapidly throughout the US
heading west to east so if you're on the
west coast you probably see more of this
than you do on the East Coast we're here
in Virginia zone seven but basically
with the Ceridian canker the fungus will
form lesions around the limbs and kind
of strangulate the plant off and it it
will start dying it'll it will move
inward so honey if you can bring the
camera close I'm going to show you what
you can do about this now a lot of folks
don't realize but evergreen trees do bud
if you look at the end of this branch
you see all these little bright green
nodules these are actually buds this is
a representation of new growth and here
we've got some Ceridian canker on the
very end of this limb the way you treat
your Leyland cypress is if you're
suffering from Ceridian canker is you
come back and you take very sharp
pruning shears that have been just rub
them down with rubbing alcohol to make
sure they're sterile and just clip that
off okay now on this branch I'll come in
here with my very short pruning shears
I'll go back here and I will clip this
off now when you do this you save the
tree when should you do it do it as soon
as you see the Ceridian canker if you
wait you allowed to persist you're
killing your tree it's just like your
your body if you get sick you know you
need treatment go get treatment quickly
because the longer you put it off the
worse off you're going to be in the long
run your trees will eventually die if
you don't come through here and stop the
Ceridian the spread of the Ceridian
canker by clipping off these ends okay I
mentioned Bott canker the second form of
canker then will affect your trees it's
a fungal
infection this tree is not actually
suffering from bot canker this tree is
suffering from animal damage from deer
coming through here and marking their
territory in the fall but I'm showing
you this trees ax as an example because
this is what bakt kanker will look like
and you'll hear this car going on behind
me this is why we're planning on leaving
cypresses because we don't just want
privacy from being seen and unseen out
to the road but that noise we just don't
want it but anyway if you're suffering
from bot canker it looks a lot like the
natural die back the tree will start
browning from the trunks gotta work its
way from the bottom up and so now you're
asking well gosh how do I know the
difference between whether my trees
suffering from natural die back or if it
has bakt kanker only time will tell you
just have to wait and be patient the
fungal sprays are relatively ineffective
I mean you can get a licensed
professional to come in and treat your
tree and you might just be paying a lot
of money for nothing so be patient
remember trees live for a long time
Leyland cypress has lived fifty to
seventy-five years so give them one
season okay if by mid summer late summer
everything starts to turn green again
then you know was natural die back but
if my fall and going into winter
everything still brown its continued it
probably was bought tanker and you
probably lost your tree most of our
Leland cypresses are healthy and they're
turning out exactly how we want them to
this is an example of when everything
goes perfect this is an example of when
we were lazy and didn't get out to doing
what we needed to do
last October beginning of October we
knew the rut was coming on with the deer
that's when the Bucks go out and they
rub trees two inches or smaller in
diameter to mark their territory we got
tree guards around most of our Leyland
cypress as we'd planted but however we
didn't get tree guards around this one
so
what happened was
can you get closer honey I wanted to see
this the deer came in and he rubbed his
antlers here destroyed the bark and we
didn't think too much of it we thought
well it's strong it'll come back okay so
what happened was in winter came on now
even without animal damage this is
something you've got to be concerned
about in the winter especially if you're
in a dry area and the last couple of
winters we've had prolonged drought type
weather so number one when everything
freezes and everything stays frozen for
a long time you're running risks
especially with your young trees what
you can do about it is you can mulch the
area above your roots to help retain
somewhat of the temperature the warmth
underneath there to protect against of
phrasing but even more importantly is
when you get those prolonged periods of
drought this weather in the winter your
your trees will suffer from the drought
type conditions in the winter just as
much as they do in the summer and a lot
of people don't think about this you've
got to water your trees even in the
winter and that mulch will help retain
the moisture too in those dry conditions
remember we're in Virginia and it's very
humid here in the summer okay a lot of
moisture content in the air in the
winter there's no humidity so any
moisture that does hit the ground gets
sucked up into the air almost
immediately so by putting mulch on here
you'll help retain the moisture but
animal damage drought is conditions for
long periods of dryness that's fourth
reason that your Leyland cypress trees
might not be making it this is the
worst-looking Leyland cypress tree that
we have out here however it might not be
the worse off there are tiny little
insects two different types that will do
this to your trees number one is called
bag worms if they're the larvae of a
moth they'll build their little
crystallises inside your tree and
they'll actually use the you will notice
them at first because they use
the stems from the lien in Cyprus to
build their nests so if you're not going
around checking your legal in Cyprus as
regularly you'll never notice them if
you're sitting on the porch looking out
across your green fields your Leyland
cypress will look green because the Maas
used the Leyland cypress itself to
disguise their nests so but at any rate
the real damage is done because when
those larvae hatch inside the nest they
suck the chlorophyll out of your Leyland
cypress so chlorophyll as you know is a
chemical used in the process of
photosynthesis for the plant to create
its own food well it doesn't get to eat
because the larvas eaten it and then
they had swings in a 5-way and your
trees dead number two is spider mites
now these wreak the most havoc they will
build tiny little webs at the forks
inside of your Leyland cypress not so
much to catch prey but for protection
for self-defense these spider mites have
very short lifespans we're talking hours
and their entire purpose of existing is
to reproduce so
they'll go in here and I live inside
their webs they'll reproduce the babies
are born they're sucking the chlorophyll
out of your tree they're reproducing
doing the same thing it's an ever
ongoing process you might think well I
just pray pesticides or spray pesticides
well when you do that you're actually
helping the spider mites because you're
killing what little bit of natural
competition they have or what few
natural predators they have the other
insects that will eat those spider mites
you're killing them off with your
pesticides so what's your best defense
against spider mites rain the rain will
actually come down and knock their
webbings down and knock them off of the
tree so if you're going through a
drought type condition and you're not
getting any rain get out and water your
Leland cypresses the watering will knock
the webs off so with this in mind are we
gonna cut this tree down and start over
no we're gonna give it this season
because it is possible that even though
your Leyland cypress gets to this point
it may come back now only give it a year
don't think well maybe it'll come back
in three years no it has the chance to
come back once a year maybe towards the
end of summer this thing will come back
and we'll move forward we'll let it keep
growing if it's not back by this fall if
it's still brown by this fall we lost it
either spider mites bought worms or it
could have been one of the tankers that
came in from the the trunk and worked
its way out but we'll know if it's still
Brown say around Halloween it's not
coming back so we'll replace it so folks
those are the five main reasons your
Leyland cypress trees turn brown we
explain what you can do with it or do
about it with each condition we hope you
learn something from this video if you
did please subscribe to our Channel a
homesteading off the grid and we'll see
you next time
