Knowledgebase

Italian cypress dried suddenly #749913

Asked May 14, 2021, 12:35 PM EDT

I planted four six-feet tall Italian compresses this last November. They were doing fine, until beginning or April when we had the first dry and sunny period. I might have not watered them for a 5 or six days and I found them one day with all leaves dried out, greenish- grayish and crunchy on 3 on them and one of the half dried out. I removed the leaves as they were just breaking off .When I scratch them 3 of them are green all along the main trunk, one of them is totally dead. Do those remining 3 have a chance to survive or I should replace them. BTW I have 10 other suppresses I planted 5 years ago and they seem to be fine, couple of them got some smaller brown branches but nothing like these four. I also planted coupressina norway spruces next to those cypresses and they are perfectly fine..

Washington County Oregon

Expert Response

Italian cypress, Cupressus sempervirens doesn’t usually dry out as these did. Replacing is a reasonable choice. You ask if they have a chance to survive, and they do, so you could wait and see what happens.

It sounds like the roots didn’t establish well. Current advice is to not amend the soil in the planting hole, and the roots will need extra water during dry spells.

Were the trees in containers? Did they seem root-bound? If you remove these trees, examine the growth of the roots for clues to what happened. Share photos here, we can troubleshoot a bit with you.

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