Sculpted long stem conifer balls

[ben]

I have two long stem conifer balls at the front of my house, bought them about 6 months ago and they are starting to produce a lot of dead around the bottom of the balls, They are in good soil, been pruned lightly and had enough water. Could anyone please advise me as to what may be causing this. Many thanks, ben

[gardening_guru]

Hello Ben,

From what you have told me, I would suspect that your conifers have been attacked by some kind of air borne fungul spores that will probably have entered through any wounds on the plants such as pruning cuts.

Make sure your secateurs are sterile, then cut out the dead bits. Promptly cut out any further brown shoots that develop and if it is such a fungul disease you might save the plants by cutting out the affected shoots quickly.