pruning dead branches from arborvitaes?

14 years ago

I planted some arborvitaes last fall that weren't amused with the strange winter we had here in MN. They have a lot of brown dead spots as seen in the picture.

The trees are made up of 4-5 trunks coming up form the roots. My question is, should I prune just the dead branches from the trunks, or take out all the trunks too that don't have any green anywhere on them. If they haven't shown new grown by now does that mean they wont?

Thanks

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Comments (2)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
for the 20 odd bucks.. i would replace the whole thing.. even if i had to buy a bit smaller..

rather than looked at that scarred mess of a plant for the next 5 years ...

prune if you wish.. but it will take a long time to look better..

its your choice..

there is a conifer forum.. should you wish to be enabled..

but they are trees also.. and you wont get any better variables upon which to make YOUR decision ...

let me rephrase it this way .. if it were on the back fence.. behind the garage.. just cut it up.. and dont go back there for 2 years.. but if its on the front lawn.. then the neighbors want you to replace it ...

ken
wisconsitom
14 years ago
But, yes, you could remove the dead parts-all of them-and it will eventually look okay. Ken's right-if it's in a prime spot, maybe be done with it. But just to answer your question, remove all dead parts right to the base.

+oM
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