Hello, We have 5 or 6 Western Red Cedars in our backyard which are about 25 feet high. They are showing signs of flagging (branches in the trees turning yellow/brown), which I know is normal. In fact, I've noticed many cedars in the Surrey, BC area showing significant flagging this year. My question is how much flagging is "normal" and if too much flagging is a sign of a problem. One of our trees is significantly yellow all in the middle of the tree and seems to keep getting yellow branches each day (it started about a week ago, the same time the other trees started to show some yellow/brown branches). Sorry, no pic right now -- I'll have to try to get one tomorrow. I'm afraid that the entire tree is going to turn yellow!! Also, is there a way to minimize the flagging? Would increasing the watering at this point in the year be any help, or if the tree is going to lose it's branches due to some other stress, am I already too late to help it? I had an arborist look at it last Monday (he was giving a quote for pruning) and he said it was just normal flagging, but in the week since he's been here, the poor tree has started looking quite bad (to my untrained eye). When the yellow branches come out, it's going to be quite sparse, if it survives at all. Any thoughs? Thanks. I'll try to add a picture tomorrow.
Watering in the drier parts of the year will help reduce flagging. Consider where the tree grows normally, in dense forests, fluffy, damp soils in mostly coastal regions. Compare that to a (likely) compacted garden soil, planted in a row or singly, light (lawn style application vs what a tree needs to get its roots wet) to no irrigation. Consider deep root watering in the summer months, you can buy a tool for this at Gardenworks and Lee Valley Tools. Or hire a tree care service to do it for you. If you hire someone to do it, dont let them fertilize it unless you have a soil test done first. You cant medicate without diagnosis. :)
Thanks so much for the reply!! You are right about where the trees are growing. They were left here when the area was originally developed but I'm sure the relatively new construction (5 years ago) and disruption of the natural flow of rainwater, etc., isn't helping. Re the deep root watering -- how often is that usually necessary if it is a dry summer? Also, is it possible that significant flagging will cause irreparable damage to the tree? Or will the tree fill in again, if I ensure that I take better care of it in the future? Thanks again.
Just one tree out of half a dozen is looking really bad but the rest are normal? Anything different about that trees location, soil, exposure to sun and rain? Cedars have very shallow roots, was the soil disturbed around it or changed or amended in some way? This time of year with the pretty heavy rain we've been getting I can't imagine watering and it's only going to get wetter as well. Unless you guys missed the Pineapple express that blew over Vancouver Island yesterday and the rainy days before that. If they made it through the dry spring and summer we had then it's hard to imagine any more water doing anything beneficial at this point. But if it's just one tree then it seems to indicate something else entirely specific to it. Note that we planted (by hand) a few hundred western red cedars around the perimeter of our property and they are a few years old now. We watered them when they were young but the last summer they were on their own with just a bucketful on the absolute dryest periods, maybe twice all summer. They seem to be fine and these are tiny trees, only 5 feet high, older trees with much more established root systems should have far less trouble. I wouldn't water unless absolutely necessary even in the dryest part of summer with mature trees like yours but you might want to ask your arborist who has seen the exact location and knows the area.
