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I am not entirely sure they are hemlock trees. They were not doing so hot when I moved in 2015, but it's getting worse over the past few years. They are located near Albany, New York State, US.

Photos are taken on Jun 3rd, 2018. There are growths on all green branches, but the dead branches are looking so dead, and there are branches turning red. The tree might be around 20 years old. Could someone tell the problem based on the photos?

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Morio
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  • looks like a fungi, not a disease to me. Is there a high water table, or something? We have a pine that looks like that on the edge of a bog. – black thumb Jul 14 '18 at 05:09
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    The greyish white crusty growths appear to be lichen, not fungal growths - you only see that type of lichen on old trees so they may be much older than you think. You've asked about these trees before, but its impossible to diagnose the problem without your carrying out a close and thorough inspection for signs of insect infestation, cracks. soft spots or weeping from the trunks/branches or anything else adds to the list of symptoms. The problem might just be previous drought, hard to say – Bamboo Jul 14 '18 at 08:00
  • If you're in the NE USA, then you should be checking for woolly adelgid, which is decimating hemlocks in that region. Look for white, cottony bits under the outer branches twice a year. – Jurp Jul 14 '18 at 23:53
  • @Bamboo Thank you very much for your answering. I did look for sign of insects (including woolly adelgid) but didn't find any. or other suspicious things, I found the greyish white crusty is prevalent on dead branches, but it could be just a correlation instead of cause and effect relationship. Yes, The tree could be as old as 24 years. And Drought could be an issue because these two trees are exposed to the sun from sunrise to sunset. Could soil pH has something to do with this? – Morio Jul 16 '18 at 12:48
  • Unlikely to be a ph problem, but from the little I can see of the needle arrangement on the branch in the last picture, I'm not sure this is hemlock, its more like Picea or Abies because of the radial arrangement of needles round the stem. Not that that helps with diagnosis of the problem particularly;ever seen any cones on them and if so, what were they like? – Bamboo Jul 16 '18 at 14:20

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If lichen are present, which IMO is may be indicative of a dying tree, you can remove it with an application of the commercial product Wet-It & Forget-It. This is a sprayed application that works overtime and kills lichen, moss and the like. It has had no other effect on my trees or grass below the sprayed canopy. It also has worked to remove the black roof stains that appeared a few years ago on my 15-yr old roof. It's intended to remove growths on house siding and has worked for me for that as well. Once applied, it works to kill the attached surface growth(s) and is slowly removed by repeated rains ... meaning that it cleans the surface in months - not immediately or in days. I like it. If you try it, get the concentrate, which costs about what the premix/sprayer gallon costs, but will make 6 gals from that single gallon. I use a tree sprayer to apply it.

Glenn Ritz
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