Why Does My False Cypress Look Sickly?

Have the twigs turned brown and died back, small black fungal structures are present on dead tissue?

Are the needles webbed and sticky?

Are the needles yellow?

Did the needles turned yellow, branches are weak and dying?

Did the foliage turned brown?

Twig blight is a disease that causes these symptoms. Prune off affected parts back to live wood. Keep the tree growing vigorously with regular watering and fertilization.

Spider mites are known to cause problems for false cypress. You can control spider mites by spraying plants thoroughly with water 2-3 times a day for several days. For severe infestations, spray plants with insecticidal soap or pyrethrin.

A scale insects that are a pest of junipers also attack False Cypress. Adult females overwinter 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.

These symptoms are caused by Black vine weevil. Adults are brown beetles with long snouts. The larvae are small whitish grubs, which feed on roots deep in the soil. The larvae feed on the roots and stems. The feeding can girdle the stem, killing the plant. Drench the soil around your plant with the predatory nematodes solution. If there are adult weevils, knock them from the plant on a piece of cloth and destroy them.

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.

The Sarawa False Cypress varieties tend 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.