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mskitty31

Winter Damaged Techny Arborvitae

12 years ago

Just wanted to see if this is normal winter damage to be expected after our ice storm? I was told I should cut out the brown branches. The plan was to put more in but I am not sure if I should just wait and see how these two fair.

Comments (7)

  • 12 years ago

    Wow. I also have an arborvitae Techny that was seriously affected by this past winter. Mine was brown everywhere. But in the last two weeks or so it has grown many green areas so I am hopeful. In my case leaving it completely alone was key because the green grew from the brown areas. Further out on the branch. If I had trimmed the brown I think I would have trimmed all the potential new growth off.

    Is that last picture of yours a different one than the two inn the photo just above it? If so, it looks different than mine. Mine was uniformly brown a few weeks ago but the branches were very flexible.

    I've only ever trimmed my arborvitae slightly when there's one small group of needles that turned brown I would cut it off. I'm a very cautious pruner unless it's a butterfly bush, say.

  • 12 years ago

    The last picture is one of the two just at a side angle. I noticed yesterday that the branches aren't uniformly brown. There are just some needles that were and others that are not. There may be only a few branches that are completely brown. I also noticed yesterday that some of the needles are both brown and green and it is hard to tell which color is taking over - are they dying or growing ? - weird. I will put some more pics up.

    I put these two in last Fall and they are the only Technys I have so I am somewhat disappointed but I'm pretty sure the ice storm didn't help - ha!

  • 12 years ago

    Here are some more pics.

  • 12 years ago

    Here is a picture I took at dusk - easier to see just how much is brown.

  • 12 years ago

    The one on the left looks better than the one on the right - at least from the side we can see in the picture. Maybe someone with more expertise will comment. Mine still has lots of brown. I"m going to prune off some dead, dried brown near the base in back but leave the rest alone on mine for a while longer.

    My rule of thumb is to trim it off if it's brown and crunchy but wait on the rest. The pattern on browning on mine is more uniform with a lot of the new green at the top. I'm going to wait until July to see how much mine recovers. I'm also watering it from time to time though it wouldn't normally need it this time of year.

    Good luck with yours. There seems to be a lot of life in them.

  • 12 years ago

    Anybody???

  • 12 years ago

    I personally would just let it grow this season. Are these new plants last season? I have both Techny and Sunkist and even when they have had heavy snow or ice they seem to shrug it off fairly well, so I would give it this season to see if it is just foliage damage as opposed to branch damage. New foliage will grow and the brown will drop off or can be pulled off by hand.