Recognizing Damage

• If you've ever kept a Christmas tree or pine wreath in your home, you know how resilient evergreen plants can be. Those decorations take weeks --- sometimes months --- after being fully separated from their source of nutrition and health before they begin to show any signs of damage. When these signs do begin to appear, they generally start with browning. This same resilience is present in arborvitae, and can create a problem with identifying just what is wrong with your new plant. The browning you notice may be a result of trauma from weeks ago that your tree is just now registering, so you must think back and investigate all potential problems to know how to deal with them.
  
  

Transportation Damage

• If you notice browning damage on only one or two branches of your arborvitae, it is likely that the plant was simply damaged during transportation or planting. If a branch was snapped during transportation from the grower to your home, or during the pushing and adjusting of the planting process, the foliage will not show the effects until two to three weeks later. Investigate the browning area, and you will likely find some cracked wood. Simply pruning off the browning area, going behind the damage at least 6 inches to make sure you get the whole problem area, will remove the brown spot; the tree will grow a new branch to take the place of the one you removed.
  
  

Watering Issues

• Arborvitae are stubborn and resilient plants, but even they cannot survive without water. When an arborvitae is newly planted, it needs water at least once every two days, especially during hot weather. This watering encourages the roots of the tree to spread out and take hold in the new soil. Once it's established after two to three seasons, an arborvitae will need little to no supplemental watering, but you must baby it for the first season or so. If you do not water the arborvitae often enough, the foliage will begin to dry out. You may have no indication that anything is wrong until a few weeks after the tree is planted.
  
  

Saving Browning Trees

• If only a branch or two of the arborvitae is turning brown, simply pruning away the damage will often restore the arborvitae to full health. However, if the entire tree has browned, it is likely too late to save the plant. This can be an extremely frustrating state of affairs, since you didn't even get a chance to rectify your mistakes. However, if your tree is fully brown, your best bet is to simply remove it and start anew with a fresh arborvitae. This time you can learn from your mistakes and grow a healthy plant.