One side of emerald green tree turning brown

5 years ago

We planted 15 gallon emerald greens about two months ago and were watering every other day with a hose for 45 seconds each time. We installed a drip system last week and accidentally let it run for 2 hours every day for a week. Now the tips are turning brown and the trees have visibly lost color. We also had same rain in the past week (we are in Sonoma, CA).

Is this due to overwatering with the drip system? Or is the drip system water not reaching parts of the root system? Or could it be something else?

Interestingly, one side of the trees is faring much better than the other half. The trees are on a very slight slope and the side of the tree that's on the lower half has much more browning and discoloration. The side on the higher side of the slope is much greener.

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Comments (2)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
take a small hand trowel ot tablespoon... and dig a few 3 to 5 inch holes in the gob planted.. and in native soil ...AND FIND OUT ABOUT MOISTURE AT ROOT DEPTH .... and then water accordingly ...

i might be more worried about the lack of water at 45 seconds.. then i would with the drip system ...

things happen with trees.. in tree time.. counted in decades ... so i might wonder about how they were treated from the time they were dug up.. sent to seller.. moved to your house... and then the watering ... what did the roots look like when you took them out of the pots???

they are very stressed... not hungry.. fert is not a response .....

ken
Red Mittens
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Thank you for your response. To us it seems like the trees got visibly worse within the past week when they were being watered much more than before (2 hours per day using a drip system + rain). So that seems to indicate more water caused the problem. Yet most resources say browning is due to underwatering.

The trees arrived looking very healthy with no browning at all. Until we installed the drip system, they had a little bit of browning initially in the first week or two, but then for the next 1.5 months, the browning didn't increase and they looked good with new growth and had vibrant green color.

Very confused now!
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