What's going on with these trees?
 

I've been fighting with these trees for a couple years now. I've sprayed them with some Bayer, Seven, and a few other things from Lowe's. At first I thought I thought an animal was peeing on it. But now the other one is starting at the top. So now I'm thinking some sort of bug. A neighbor was guessing spider mites? Never heard of that before. However, my green thumb is more brown then green and I really don't know what I'm doing in this department. I'm at the mercy of the kids at the Lowe's and nurseries. Here's a few pics, so if you have any ideas or what I can put on them to bring them back I would really appreciate it. There are new buds so they are still growing. Oh, I don't even know what kind of tree they are, baby spruce?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241360834.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241360853.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241360873.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241360889.jpg

We had a shrub outside our front door that was replaced twice and dying again.

The landscape guy was over one day and the wife asked him what's up.

He looked across the street and noticed the same specimen at a neighbors house that was dead on one side similar to your 2nd, 3rd pics.

He went over to look and realized that our wrought iron and glass front door was acting like a giant mirror reflecting the afternoon sunlight like a frikin laser beam right on the dead spot.

We put in a more light/heat tolerant specimen and it's been fine.

I never thought of that being an issue. Especially since being up here in MI and those trees are on the North side of the house which doesn't get any (much) sun. But I suppose anything is possible. I'll have to go out there a few times on sunny days to see if that is happening.

We have some lower evergreen shrubs in front of our house. Sections of them have been dying off for a few years now. We don't know why either.

Plant stress. For one reason or another.
Here is an informative discussion:

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/cedar.htm

I definately do not know what is causing the problem but I would reccomend cutting out all of the dead parts - sometimes, the disease spreads and you need to get rid of the parts that have the disease.

That looks like a Dwarf Alberta Spruce with a Spruce Spider Mite infestation/damage.

Seems early for Michigan or am I looking at damage from last year.?

Anyhow ... treatable with chemicals from any garden shop. Look for something that targets Spider Mites.

Spruce Spider Mite: Apply a horticultural spray oil as a dormant treatment. Motile stages of mites can be managed with formulations of abamectin, bifenazate, bifenthrin (Bifenthrin Pro Multi-Insecticide, Onyx Insecticide, Talstar F, Talstar Lawn & Tree Flowable, Talstar GC Flowable, Talstar Nursery Flowable, and TalstarOne Multi-Insecticide only), chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin, dicofol, dimethoate, disulfoton, etoxazole, fenbutatin-oxide, fenpyroximate, hexythiazox, horticultural oil, hydrophobic extract of neem oil, insecticidal soap, lambda-cyhalothrin (Battle GC, Demand CS, Scimitar CS, Scimitar GC, and Scimitar WP only), malathion, oxydemeton-methyl, spinosad, spiromesifen, and tau-fluvalinate.

Management Hints: Select and apply a dormant horticultural spray oil before new growth starts and before buds separate into clusters. A dormant horticultural spray oil application should be made while temperatures remain above freezing. Dimethoate is not labeled for application on spruce. Horticultural spray oil and insecticidal soap remove the glaucous bloom (blue color) from spruces such as Colorado blue spruce and Koster spruce.

Note: Apply a registered formulation to kill mites hatching from eggs (miticide). This will occur from May through June. Additional generations may need to be managed in September through early October. If mite populations persist, repeat applications may be necessary. Monitor mite populations prior to applying a control measure. Heavy rainfalls may reduce mite populations for a short time.

Thanks for the link. I'll try it out.

My Bayer or Sevin should work too. I'm going to try the home remedy as well.

The mites feed off the old growth until the new stuff has hardened up (summer).

We are talking cheap chemicals here. Do it right, do it often to save the shrubs.

Yup, the one tree with the most is from last year. The top of the other one is from this year. At least I didn't notice it last year. So I'm not sure.

My Bayer stuff says it kills aphids so maybe I need to do it more often for a while.

I am having the same problem with a shrub and a large pine tree. The pine tree isn't too bad near the bottom but the one shrub is mostly brown with 1/4 green left. I thought it had something to do with the drought we had last summer and the summer before last. Not sure though. I will probably need to cut it down soon.

Shadetree930 - is the aphid the same as a spider mite?

Could be spider mites. I had a bad problem with them on an indoor plant once. Ony thing that killed them off was Pyrethrin.

Do they have that at nurseries and/or something like Lowe's? I'll have to look for it next time I'm out.

Umm I got it from here: http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=8101

I tried 3 or 4 different products before I finally got rid of them for good. It was like some of the stuff wouldn't either stick to the plant or wouldn't kill the eggs.

nailed it...

We had a few of our shrubs look like yours and they died a few years ago. We replaced them with Arborvitae and no more problems...

Boxwood is also very hardy and easy to grow...

I went back to Lowe's and got some new Bayer stuff that says spider mites right on the front. I'll hit it a couple times a week for a while.

Do I need to cut out the brown stuff or will it grow back on it's own???

I hired a local tree doctor, they're cheaper than you buying $100 Bayer tree and bush medications. He told me that my ornamental fruitless plums were dying of old age (about 30 years max). I think he charged me $45.