I have three serbian spruce planted side by side 4.5 years ago. They have flourished and are now about 15 feet tall but this spring I noticed the one in the middle was showing no new growth. Later I realized that it was shedding far more needles in its centre than the other two which still look very healthy. The needle loss became worse and the lower branches became bare while the upper branches started losing the needles at the branch tips. I called an arborist who took a sample and sent it to a lab. The lab found no insect infestation. The tree is now completely brown and I am waiting for the soil analysis to come back. Does anyone have any ideas about what could have happened to this tree? The landscapers left the wire cage on it when they planted it but I removed the burlap. thank you
I'm not sure how much the wire cages would inhibit the roots, if at all, because it's hard to picture what they are/were like. My thought was that if only the dead tree that had a cage, it could be a clue about why it died.
