conifer going a bit rusty, should I be worried?

It's happened o a few conifers around here.I thought perhaps it was the cold winds earlier in the spring/summer.
I assume it's getting g enough ater, being in a pot!

It got enough watering with the rain we've had recently! I try to water every day, or every other day at least.

I checked my other conifers, traditional one-stem, and they seem to be ok.

I would sink the pot into a large tub of water and let it
soak for an hour every day. You will then see the bubbles coming to the surface. Watering is not enough.

I buried a length of plastic tube when I repotted it, Diane, so that I cuold water the roots; usually I keep going till it starts coming out of the overflow - but I have skipped this the last couple of days, because the tub was so placed that the tube was at the back. Now I've moved it, I can get at it all round, so it'll get a good soaking from now on. I don't think I'd be able to lift it in and out of a tub of water every day - it was a s truggle to move it from where it was to where it is now!

Fingers crossed it will be OK. I don't know much about conifers so not much help, I'm afraid.

I have 3 Golden Conifers on my balcony which I've had for many years now. The biggest on of the three seems to be drying up. :-(( It's losing a lot of "leaves" which are turning brown & falling off. The other two seem to be alright at present. I'd hate to lose it but like you, Fran, I don't know what to do about it.

Hope yours recovers from whatever is plaguing it.

Thanks Gee and Balcony. I had been skimping a bit on the watering - I'd put plenty on the top, but it's a bit of a pain to get the spout of the wtering can in the pipe and then I have to pour in a bit at a time to let the previous lot get down the pipe or it just spits it back out again.

But I gave it a good drink couple of days ago, so hope that'll hold it for a few days. Really, I should have buried something with a wider mouth, but there wasn't room in the tub for a 2-litre milk bottle, which I've put in other large pots.

Maybe next time I repot this, I'll shove a layer of water-retaining gel in the bottom - ha, at least then I can tell when it needs watering, the "ground level" sinks - downside: if i fill the pot wiht only slightly wet gel, when it gets really soaked in the rain the soil level rises up to and sometimes over the top of the pot! and I thought I'd thoroghly soaked it before putting it in!

I hope your conifer recovers ..
my suggestion would be never pour tap water ( i.e. hard water) over the foliage ... always water the soil below ...

nods, I have to use tap water, it's all I have, but I fill 5-litre water botles and let them stand to bring them up to ambient temperature. I water the pot, not the plant! but sometimes I finish with a "rain" over the top to moisten the atmosphere. I've done that with this, but not often, and maybe I should knock it off completely.

In the past, I've done damage to plant foliage by pouring hard water on the leaves/foliage ... a particular problem in areas of the country where the water is especially hard ..
.. the foliage went brown where the water had fallen ...

.. so, these days, I always try to water the soil not the leaves ... even if I'm using rain water ... and whether the plants are in the ground or in pots ..

I hope your tree perks up...

Thanks TT - I'll stop "raining" on this and the other conifers, and hope it'll recover.

thanks for that, Homebird. Some plants do shelter the soil in the pots almost completely, but this one has "stems" or whatever and grows more upwward than out, so there's soil exposed - enough for the damn squirrels to excavate in!

I'm a bit wary of overwatering, as that seems to be my favourite method of killing plants - houseplants, at least: I've had some that were years old that went that way.

:-) plants are a bit like people - can take weeks to die of thirst but can drown in a few minutes!