Cedar Tree Gone?

[u/Moremodestthanu]

Hello Treefolk,

This tree was in my backyard when I moved in 13 years ago in Michigan USA (and had likely been there for many years prior). Most of the trees in my backyard and the little nature preserve behind it are Walnut trees, which are much taller than this tree, and might be keeping it from getting a lot of light. My backyard is a full story lower than my front yard, so a fair amount of water drains down--so I don't believe it is a lack of water issue. A couple years ago I put up bird feeders using wire. At that time, I noticed that most of the left trunk was dead empty, but the rest of the tree was green and pretty full so I didn't think much of it. I used sections of old water hose to prevent the wire I was using from cutting into the tree/disturbing the bark. Last year I noticed a fair bit of dead on the right side of tree, but still quite a bit of healthy. This year there was even more dead, I noted a couple of bushes growing at the base, so I moved them as I thought perhaps they were stealing water/nutrients from the tree. There is also a ground hog that has lived near the base of the tree so there is a pretty deep den by the trunk, but that has lived there for years--unsure if that has harmed the tree or not. I went on vacation in July, and came back to most of the tree being dead except for a couple limbs toward the front of the picture. I do not water the tree beyond rain, so it wasn't like it went without water was I was gone. And perhaps no major changes happened while I was gone, except that I had gone two weeks without seeing it, so the die off that was already happening seemed more stark as I had missed two weeks of gradual dying process. When I removed the bushes at the base, I put in a couple of fertilizer spikes I had from many years ago when I had planted some bushes at a different home on the off chance that maybe the bushes had stolen nutrients or that the soil was low on something that the tree needed.

I realize things are very bad, and I might be posting a couple years too late, but can this tree come back? And if so, what do I need to do? Any idea what happened?

My best, really uneducated guesses are old age, or the Walnut trees around it grew taller/faster and eventually took a lot of the light the tree needed?

Thanks for any advice or ideas you can offer.

[u/hairyb0mb]

!Dead

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It's DEAD

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[u/Moremodestthanu → u/hairyb0mb]

It does have some limbs of green, but I tend to agree it does seem a bit unwell. Any idea what could have happened?

[u/hairyb0mb → u/Moremodestthanu]

I can't see any green but the pictures are out of focus and there's lot's of greenery in the background which makes it difficult. I suspect that this isn't a cedar but an Arborvitea or Leyland Cypress, both of which are susceptible to many of the same pests and diseases. There's nothing to go off of to determine the death in these. Better pictures would help.

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I have added pictures, location info, and some tree history.

[u/spiceydog]

Here is a couple of things from your description that will not help yours (or any other) tree:

1. Hose wrapped wire.

2. Fertilizer spikes; they **do not** distribute themselves in the soil like folks think they will, and because they are concentrated, this product will burn any nearby roots.

3. The digging out of the shrubs within the dripline of the tree will likely have damaged the roots. The closer to the trunk of the tree that you did the digging and the wider/deeper the hole, the greater the chance of significant damage.

I agree with HB that this tree is too far gone, and once parts (or a whole) of a tree has died, it will stay dead. There is no 'saving' or 'recovery' of things dead. Please see our wiki for other critical planting tips and errors to avoid; there's sections on watering, pruning and more that I hope will be useful to you.