Brown conifer

[LovelyBitOfSquirrrel]

Hi,

We have a row of conifers in the back of our garden. One of them had a brown patch in the middle when we moved in about 4 years ago and it is now completely brown. Does anyone know if this is fixable and how I can do it? Also, what is best to do to stop this happening to the other ones. I have attached some photos.

Thankyou

Once conifers have browned off, they're done. There's a disease of conifers which I can't remember the name of, but someone here will.

Its gone I'm afraid.

Thankyou, is there anything I can do to prevent this happening to the rest?

It is a goner I'm afraid. They do die like that sometimes.

Might I suggest that you cut back all the dead foliage and smaller branches, but leave the trunk and main branches in situ? You can then use the ones beside it to fill the gap by training the branches sideways until they meet in the middle. After a couple of years, you'll never know. Leaving the trunk also means that there won't be an unsightly gap in the row.

I find that Leylandii aren't generally drought resistant, so if you have a prolonged dry spell, they are very vulnerable.

Each one of mine that died, I've replaced with a yew because it blends well into a hedge. The trouble is yew is poisonous so you do need to be careful when touching the leaves or pruning.

To help prevent the rest going the same way, try not to prune them too much, as many conifers don't like it. You could also give them a really good feed of general purpose fertiliser, and if it appears that the soil is totally bone dry then they will need a very long soak.

@Yamadori Thankyou that’s a great tip as I was worried about having to replace it. The soil is very dry so I will give them a good soak and I’ve ordered some feed. It just confused me how one of them has completely gone. I’m not very good at gardening atall but thought these were easy!

@MintJulia I must admit I have not been great with watering as I thought their roots were so deep they just suck everything they need from deep down. Yew isn’t an option to us unfortunately as they’re poisonous to dogs

We had a row of Leylandii like that at the back of our garden, we dug them up with a mattock and spade - they aren't as deep rooted as you'd expect! We got rid of them because a) Leylandii, and b) they took every available drop of water out of the soil and nothing would grow near them.

I would replant with holly rather than yew, if I was going to change them. There are nice varieties of holly out there.