I have a beautiful monkey puzzle that seems to have some disease bothering the new growth at the tips of the branches. I've included a close up of the branch tip. One of the other pictures shows a branch that apparently recovered enough to put on new growth in following years - you'll notice the "bad spots" spaced along the branches. The other picture show branches that apparently lost their growing tip and haven't grown since. Luckily only a small percentage of the branches are affected. Please tell me what this is and how to control it. Thanks, Vickie
Doesn't look like a biotic disease. Maybe slight cold damage from the bad winter just gone, or perhaps some sort of nutrient imbalance?
This has been going on for several years. This past winter was brutal - we lost a lot of plants. The winter before I don't think we even had a hard frost. Whatever it is, the growing buds stick shut so that the new needles don't open up. Only about 10% of the branch tips are affected and my other MP has no damage at all.
Have you seen this on any other similarly exposed A. in your neighbourhood/environs? It looks like winter kill?
I have two monkey puzzles and the other one is about 30' from this one and it has no damage at all. Even on the affected one it's only a small percentage of the branches
Wondering if it might just be an individual with a minor genetic problem, perhaps due to inbreeding in the fairly small population of the species in cultivation. Pruning the brown tips - if you want to, do so, but I'd doubt it is really necessary.
