Take a sharp knife and nick the bark to see if it is still green. If so there is hope. If not, you need a new tree. There is nothing you can do other than keep the soil moist but not wet. Fertilizer will hurt more than help.

The Fruitnut

Mattozan:

Fertilizing a sick tree is like pouring water on a drowning man. It sounds as if something very serious happened to the roots of your new tree, perhaps because you put fertilizer in the planting hole or something like that. Did you do anything like that?

You may still find a little green in the cambium when you nick the tree, but any tree that has not leafed out in Sacramento at this time of year is a goner.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA