Problems of False Cypress
| Problems |
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| Symptoms | Probable Causes |
| Lower Branches Die | The Sarawa False Cypress varieties have a tendency to lose their lower branches fairly early in life. There is no way to prevent this. Trim them off and enjoy the handsome reddish-brown, peeling bark on the exposed lower trunk. |
| Foliage Turns Brown | Lack of Moisture - Reduced moisture during hot summer months sometimes causes False Cypress foliage to turn brown. Twigs may drop. Soak the soil under the mulch with water to a depth of two feet by watering slowly. Use drip irrigation or a hose turned on slightly to permit a slow drip. Check soil moisture under the mulch every two or three weeks if rainfall is sparse. |
| Needles Turn Yellow; Weak; Dying Branches | Weevil - Black vine weevils sometimes attack False Cypress. Adults are brown beetles with long snouts. They have tear-shaped and hard-shelled bodies, averaging 3/8 inch long. They feed on leaves and bark, leaving characteristic notches along the edges of cypress needles. Weevil larvae, white grubs with brown heads, feed on roots deep in the soil. These pests are hard to spot because they feed at night, living under tree bark and debris on the ground by day. |
| Because these weevils "play dead" when disturbed, folding their legs and dropping off plants to the ground, they can be trapped. Gently beat the branches of the infested tree and catch the startled insects when they fall onto a cloth spread beneath the shrub. |
| Yellow Needles | Scale - A scale insect that is fond of juniper also likes False Cypress. Adult females winter over in the vicinity of the shrubs. Their young appear in the spring. They are tiny crawling insects, white at first, changing to gray or black. They curl at the base of cypress needles and suck the juice from plant cells. |
| Webbed; Sticky Needles | Spider Mite - A spider mite that favors spruces occasionally attacks False Cypresses. These mites resemble tiny spiders. They are green at first, turning greenish black as they mature. Because they are only 1/64 inch long, their webs are more likely to be noticed than they are. The female lays her eggs on twigs and among the needles where they pass the winter. In the spring young mites feed on the foliage, causing it to turn yellow and look sickly. |
| Branch Tips Browned; Die Back | Twig Blight - A fungus that often attacks red cedars, arborvitaes and junipers, also appears on False Cypresses occasionally. The fungus is harbored on older trees in the vicinity and its spores are carried by wind, rain, and contaminated gardening tools. They land on False Cypress twigs and foliage, causing their tips to turn brown and die back. Progressively the fungus spreads until entire branches, and possibly the tree, die. This disease is more common in seedlings, nursery stock and 8 to 10 foot trees planted as ornamentals. Once False Cypresses and others are over 5 years old, they sustain little damage from this disease. |
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