I live in the Los Angeles, CA, area. I planted 5 Redwood tress about 6 years ago in a cluster and now they are about 25ft tall. In a short period of time (?), 1 of the Redwood turned brown and appears to be dead? I don't think its the amount of water it gets or acidity in the ground, because the other Redwoods that are in the same cluster are okay? Does anyone know what the problem may be?
Re: Redwood Tires One recent post from your area mentioned no rain for 11 months. If you haven't irrigated they likely died from lack of water. The remaining trees may be at death's door. Evergreens can look ok then suddenly brown and die.
Re: Redwood Tires Since they are bunched together they will be in competition, sounds like one of them has lost the race. In the forest quantities of new trees come up and fail over time, leaving a minority to prevail and become dominant individuals. Where there has been a disaster and a whole new stand starts up at about the same time, most of these new recruits will not make it to become the final set of trees that are the major components of the mature grove.
Re: Redwood Tires There can also be some cultural problems due to installation issues such as being planted too deeply, poor nursery stock, root balls being damaged during transport from the nursery to the site, or any number of other problems.
It could be something as basic as some twine, or even an encircling root hidden below grade that could have girdled the trunk. Even if twine or girdling roots are cut away, sometimes there is another hidden out of sight. The photos I attached show above grade and what should have been obvious that a landscaper left behind. Among those 400 trees were various less obvious roots and twine below the surface too. Could be another issue too. Sounds like you have plenty left though considering how bit they get.
Great pictures and examples. Thanks for taking the time to snap and share. To think (in your picture) it all could have been avoided if the landscaper would have taken the time to plant the tree properly. Going further back, the tree could of maybe had a fighting chance if the nursery used a natural twine that would break down, rather than a plastic twine that takes forever to break down and will cut into the trunk if left neglected. It's sad to see things that are so easily corrected or prevented early on, cost so much when left neglected over time. It’s also sad when someone hires a “professional” to plant a tree for them, in hopes that the professional will do it right, protecting their investment in a tree with hopes of giving it the best chances for survival. Where instead, they get someone who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care, giving the customer a false sense of security, putting their investment at risk, and leaving the tree to fend for itself. Costing them even more money to correct it later or replace the tree with one planted correctly. (Oops...I think I've said too much) I'm glad you were there to fix their mistake. Thanks again for the great example of what not to do. I like to book mark a photo like this, because its always better to show someone why. You can try to tell someone why but it does not set in until someone can see it and fully understand the repercussions.
It was suprising for me to find that the sythetic twine was still being used. One photo, was from one of 400 trees planted in West Linn, Oregon. It started for me, with one cosultation about 1 year ago in March, 2013. About 350 of the trees still had the twine on them. About 100 were synthetic twine. The natural fiber ones had about 5 wraps, so even that was indenting trunk some. The synthetic twine wrapped balls and trunks were the biggest ones, about 3 meters tall, each / 10 footers. Normally I don't take maintenance / weekly accounts, But I agreed to that one location to help it transform properly in the years ahead. It's 9 acres with 1 acre landscaped. And the 400 trees on the landscape and in groups around the perimeter of 8 acres set-aside for habitat. Most field in the midst. The field mowing is done by another resident, local. I do the tree care and lawn now. Was going to hire a worker to mow, but found I like the fast pace 2 hour walk once each week for myself. Aside from twine removal, the $10,000 worth of bark mulch is probably the second most effective thing done for the trees and shrubs. Following that, no more trees have died, and the condition of color and growth improved quickly and noticeably
