I just had some cypress trees dry out and die on my property. I was
told it was a root fungus, but who knows, because two other arborists
told me something completely different.

But I got to thinking, these particular trees I once had to water by
hand since the sprinklers weren't working for a while. And when I was
watering them, it wasn't just at the base, I was also spraying water
up into the tree itself, into the bark, etc.

Could it be that this somehow washed away a protective coating or
something that caused them to die?