Non deciduous trees turn brown then back to green again.

[Marc Lewis]

A customer of mine lives near Stour Head where the ground is very fertile and some grand specimen trees on their property and locally. Now a huge mature redwood and a mature wrc turned completely brown for several weeks and then after some rain about 10 days ago they look completely normal again. Has anybody come across this before? No works have been carried out in the area. Also a young yew tree, approx. 5ft high turned brown also, but this has not come back.

 

Thanks in advance

[doobin]

I’ve seen yew hedges turn brown and then recover. 

[Steve Bullman]

The whole trees turned brown? Can’t say I’ve ever come across that. 2 trees on the same site also seems suspicious, might be worth investigating further 

[Mick Dempsey]

Agreed, not a scenario I have ever experienced first hand or heard of before.

 

As a rule with evergreens once they’re gone they’re gone.

 

be nice if you had photographic documentation.

[slack ma girdle]

Here in west Wales after the storm in mid May, alot of trees turned brown,  which was due to the storm carrying in salt laden air which burnt off the leaves. I don't know where stourhead is, and coastal proximity,  but the very dry cold April and May may have been a factor particularly if the leaves/ needles were freshly emerged.

[Dan Maynard]

Round here we had really late frost, could that have damaged the early emerging leaves?

[shillo]

fairly common down here too. usually salt laden winds, usually one side of tree only. I did have a big macrocarpa turn totally brown last year in the summer I thought it had died but it greened up again after some rain.

[Marc Lewis]

Yeah very odd. The customer said to look at you would assume they were dead trees. Unfortunately I did not see them in this condition, only before and after and to look at now seem quite normal. I think I can 99% rule out sabotage and we are a good hour from the coast.

I am back there tomorrow to carry out some other work and will ask if they took any pictures.

Curious

[Vedhoggar]

16 hours ago, Marc Lewis said:

 

A customer of mine lives near Stour Head where the ground is very fertile and some grand specimen trees on their property and locally. Now a huge mature redwood and a mature wrc turned completely brown for several weeks and then after some rain about 10 days ago they look completely normal again. Has anybody come across this before? No works have been carried out in the area. Also a young yew tree, approx. 5ft high turned brown also, but this has not come back.

 

Thanks in advance

 

What time of year did the trees turn brown? How much of the trees turned brown/how far up and was it just on one side - was it actually the whole tree? Any other trees in the area affected? If winter and near a main road possibly salt spray damage but would be mainly on the roadside of tree, if springtime possibly frost damage, if summertime there are arable fields nearby could be herbicide drift damage. Have worked in that area in the past and a number of hedgerows planted got badly damage on more than one occasion by drift of herbicide from adjacent farmland. Stourhead/Mere area is quite a distance from sea so probably not that. Ask Head Garden and/or Head Ranger based at Stourhead if they have had a similar problem.

[Marc Lewis]

What time of year did the trees turn brown? How much of the trees turned brown/how far up and was it just on one side - was it actually the whole tree? Any other trees in the area affected? If winter and near a main road possibly salt spray damage but would be mainly on the roadside of tree, if springtime possibly frost damage, if summertime there are arable fields nearby could be herbicide drift damage. Have worked in that area in the past and a number of hedgerows planted got badly damage on more than one occasion by drift of herbicide from adjacent farmland. Stourhead/Mere area is quite a distance from sea so probably not that. Ask Head Garden and/or Head Ranger based at Stourhead if they have had a similar problem.

The whole tree/trees turned brown and this was for about 2 months around jan/Feb time. It wouldn't be salt from the roads but farmers herbicides did cross my mind. To look at, you would think the tree was dead.

Good idea to speak to head gardener at Stourhead.