I noticed this tree while I was waiting at my bus stop one morning. It is tucked in with a few others so it doesn't stand out as much as it might if it were alone, but the top is clearly dead. When I got closer to take a look, I could see that the whole leader was dead and only the lateral branches lower on the trunk appear normal.
I'm not sure why the leader had died, and it was on someone's property so I couldn't examine it up close, but it's pretty clear that this tree should be removed. There is no way a conifer would come back from something like leader death all the way down the trunk.Many broadleaved trees contain latent buds hidden in the bark, and when the tree is stressed (like by a pruning cut), they erupt and sprout branches directly from the trunk. Coniferous trees don't usually have these. If a conifer loses its leader it will not grow another one. The only real course of action is to take a high branch and train it into the position of leader.
In this case, since such a huge portion of the tree is dead, and there is no chance of retraining a new leader, it should be removed and replaced.
Do you have bark beetles in your area? In Central California, we have bark beetles which make burrows in bark, and some beetles make their burrows laterally around the tree trunk (usually towards the base). The tree die-back starts from the top and tips of the branches first and spreads downward.
ReplyDeleteThere is no stopping it once the infestation is established. It's best to remove the tree during the winter, when the sap is not flowing, because that is when the beetles are most active and winging to mate.
These are very easily spread by using firewood from an infected local.