At Penn State Extension, there have been a fair number of calls from homeowners asking about brown areas and needle drop in arborvitae as well as spruce and pine.

According to Penn State, the underlying culprit is changing weather patterns. Cool wet spring weather gives a boost to fungal infections. Harsh winter winds and a lack of a snow pack promote winter damage. The damage doesn’t necessarily show up right away, so the cause can be deceiving.

Wet springs mean evergreen needles stay wet and fungus gets a chance to set up shop. The pathogen can start on a few needles and spread into the branches and trunk over a period of time.

It can take a couple of years before the extent of the injury is apparent.

If you are seeing damage on your evergreens, it’s important to find out what’s causing the problem before you get out the chain saw. If it’s insects or disease, you may be able to treat your tree or shrub.

It’s a good idea to take a sample of the damaged tissue to Penn State Extension so it can be submitted to the plant clinic for analysis and a management plan.

How to Help your Evergreens

• To decrease winter damage, keep your evergreens watered up until the first frost. Trees and shrubs need at least an inch of water a week to stay hydrated. If the rain fails, soaker hoses are a good option.

• Since the snow pack is unreliable, protect your tree roots with arborist’s wood chips from the drip line to within six inches of the trunk.

Don’t let the mulch touch the trunk since you give voles a pathway to gnaw on the bark.

• For smaller evergreens, protect the vulnerable areas with a wind break. This includes anywhere the wind comes around a corner of the house, hits an evergreen isolated on a lawn, or blasts a hedge. Wind breaks can be burlap, or even discarded Christmas tree branches. Don’t let the wind break touch the tree or shrub you are trying to protect.

Burlap wind barriers were a common sight when I was growing up. Then protective sprays came on the market. They were supposed to reduce water loss through the needles in winter, but they don’t really work that well. You want a barrier that protects the plant.

Unpredictable weather patterns are now the norm. It’s time to up our game or face losing valuable landscape plants.

For help and information, call the Carbon County Penn State Extension office at 570-325-2788.

If you want to speak to a Master Gardener, they are in the office on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. until noon.