Help with Pine

[Adi]

My pines started

drying out. What can be the cause and how can I stop the damage?
I am Northern Virginia.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Has it been dry? If those are Thuja they do not tolerate drought. Any closeup pictures?

 

[Adi]

Yes, we had an very hot and dry summer. I usually don’t water in the summer as rain water is sufficient.

 

[DirtMechanic]

it appears the nearest 3 of the plants have a similiar concave burn effect? I do not mean this time, it appears they have had this burn before? Is there some shade offered further down the drive such that the convex natural shapes are impeded by solar burn? Not enough credit is given to water for its property of absorbing IR wavelengths and evaporating that same heat in a highly emissive form factor..

 

[Chuck]

We need closeup pictures but from these pictures it might be bagworms.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I see some cases..missed those @Chuck.

 

[Silentrunning]

We need closeup pictures but from these pictures it might be bagworms.

Two of my Green Giant Arborvitae had the same browning. I cut the branches off at the trunk and immediately burned them. Not knowing what the problem was I bathed the tree in Sevin spray. I pulled all the mulch away from the base and burned that. I put fresh commercial mulch down and sprayed the tree and ground with a fungicide that I had. This was a desperation move since I didn’t want anything to happen to my bonsai conifers. As of yesterday the two trees look fine with no evidence of browning at all.

 

[Chuck]

Yep, I see many bagworm cocoons in your last picture. There is nothing you can do now. Back a few months ago you could have sprayed. You can remove the dead limbs as @Silentrunning did but your trees will probably be lopsided. Since you know that bagworms are present or can be present in great numbers you might think about replacing the tree with something that bagworms don't like.