You are watering too often. Water only enough to keep newly planted specimens moist. Stick your finger into their rootballs to check if you are unable to judge from visual inspection. In future do not use root stimulator or tree spikes. If fertilizing is indicated by a soil test (try New Mexico Cooperative Extension for help with this) apply an appropriate granular fertilizer to the surface of the mulch.

If there is no mulch, there should be.

spot on bboy ...

all i would add.. is that it is conifer ... and should be treated as a conifer.. not a shrub .... which means.. differing watering.. as ron noted..

ken

Thanks for the info. So I'll water less often and quit using fertilizer. Will this liven up my trees? or do I need any kind of medicine for it?

If they have rotted roots they may even now decline and fail. Depends on what specific circumstances are. Give care recommended here and see how it goes.

I cut back the watering to 3 days a week, 1 gallon per day. 3 of the 4 trees seem to be getting better. I'm still keeping watch to see if that is still too much.

I have four recently planted 8 foot Italian Cypress turning yellow at the trunk on lower limbs also. I have watered them about twice a week with a sprinkler but they look pretty bad. Any ideas?
Do you think this is shock from being planted? Mine were extremely root bound in the pots I purchased them in.

Bethany, it sounds as though you might have the opposite problem - too little water. You don't say how long you are running the sprinkler, but that's a notoriously inefficient way to water. You are probably watering a lot of other things in your yard that don't need it, plus a goodly percentage (amount depending on heat, humidity, wind, etc.) of the water from a sprinkler evaporates before it hits the ground or doesn't reach the targeted plant(s).

Poke a finger down into the root ball - down to the second knuckle - and see if the tip is wet or dry. If it is dry, then water WELL, but slowly, so the water gets to the bottom of the root ball. Hand watering, either with a hose, or with a 3-5-gallon bucket with 3-5 holes in the bottom, would guarantee that all the water reached the root ball.

Because yours were root-bound, they will tend to dry out faster than if they were not. If you roughed up the sides and bottom of the ball as you planted, which you should have done, then they will more than likely recover and the roots will grow out into the soil, but it will take longer than if the roots had grown only to the sides of the pot/root abll. If you didn't rough them up, they will probably also be OK, but it will take longer still. Because there is mostly roots in the root ball, and probably little soil, there is little to hold moisture in the root ball. The trees were probably watered daily, maybe twice a day in the nursery, so it wasn't a factor in how they looked. BUT, it does mean that you have to water more often than you would otherwise. Still check before you water, as they may have begun to adjust. If you haven't mulched DO SO - as widely as possible, no deeper than 4", and no mulch in the couple of inches next to the trunks.

Mike, you need to check and see if yours are getting too much or too little water, and then adjust the system, unless you have already done so, in which case, my apologies. Certainly cut off the fertilization. You should also mulch, as the dry air will cause a lot of evaporation from the ground, and "waste" a lot of the water you apply.

Here's a related question. My 4-foot Italian cypresses have drooping branches that resulted after a recent snow and wind storm. The question is, should I tie them up or just let them droop? Seems like tieing them up would not harm the tree.

I was able to revive all but one of my Cypress'. A good trick to know if you're watering to much or too little is:

If the bottom of the tree is yellowing first, from the inside out, you're watering too much.

If the top of the tree is turning brown first then you're watering too little.

We are having the same problem as Robert......our 8' cypresses have many drooping branches following a heavy snow.....what to do? tie them? prune them? give them little blue pills? :) or leave them alone to correct themselves over time? other than this issue, they appear to be healthy

Oldenpony, we don't get much snow down here in Southern Utah, but when we did get a little bit the last few winters, I noticed that they were causing the branches to droop on my cypresses. I was a little concerned, but figured I'd leave it alone for a while. Sure enough, within a couple - three weeks, they perked right back up.

hello everyone, I have seven italian cypresses six to seven ft. apart, I planted them six years ago one suddenly died last year and I replaced it with one the same size as the rest, now they're aprox. 8 to 9 ft. tall. they were all nice and green during and after winter time, now I noticed that two are turning brownish and dry but at the same time there's tiny little green branches popping out from the trunk, they look bad, green in some parts and really dry in others.
I don't water these trees with dripping lines, they get the water from the sprinkle system 5 mins. in the morning and 5mins. in the evening, the weird thing is that last year it happened exactly the same thing but only with one of these two during summer time last year and slowly turning green when we were getting close to fall-winter, I really don't have a clue if I'm watering to much or not. and why the other trees look green from the outside and when I stick my hands through the branches they look dryish from the inside, it's getting hard for me to understand these trees.
I had a dream long time ago that I had these 7 or 8 italian cypresses lined up tall and green, it would be so sad that now that they're 8 to 9 ft. tall I'll have to chop them down because I let them die. please HELP !!!
oh !! and by the way last year I started using this liquid food from Miracle Grow every 2 weeks and it seems it was working good now I started to use it again two weeks ago, should I keep using it, should I stop using it, what kind of food or fertilizer is good for these trees ?
thx. Rudy.

5 minutes of water.. twice a day is most likely insufficient ... especially for extremely large transplants ...

feeding a plant that is starved for water.. wont help

start your own post.. and add some pix

ken

Everyone here is watering too often. They should only be watered once every 2-3 weeks. Their roots are prone to root rot so watering too often will hurt them. Constant drip systems will ensure they get mold issues.

I have 2 italian cypress and is getting turning yellow did somebody can help me how often water or gallons i need to put it so it can be green

Italian Cypress are used to a Mediterranean climate which is generally arid. Unless it's a new planting, you might only want to water it every once and a while.

I really need help! I just purchased 14x 11 foot tall Italian cypress last week. They arrived looking and smelling really good. Very upright and an amazing pine smell to it.

Now, a week later, the branches have started to droop on all but one of them. Have a look at the images:

These are still potted in 24" planters and I have been watering them every 2-3 days with about 2.5-3 gallons of water. Now I am not sure if these drooping branches are caused by over or under watering them. The guy where I bought these from said I need to water them EVERY day with about 3 gallons of water but I' really nervous about doing so since my soil meter shows me that the soil is still wet at 4" and 8" deep (2 days after last watering):

I also noticed that the trees have lost their pine smell. They don't smell like anything at the moment.

Do you have any advise for me? I don't want these beautiful trees to die. For right now I just tied back all of the drooping branches and haven't continued watering yet.

Thanks!

An 11 foot plant in a 2 foot pot may well need watering generously every day, especially if you live in a hot climate. Can you get them planted in the ground?

The pot is 24"x24". Unfortunately, I won't be able to plant them until end of 2019 since they will need to remain portable until construction of the guest house is complete (just in case construction crew needs more room).

The nursery told me, though, that I can safely grow them in these planters for 3-5 years before I need to plant them into the ground.

I've also been in touch with the owner of the nursery and he told me the following when I voiced my worry about them being over watered:

"No you cant overwater them because the water runs out of the wood container. Yes you need to water daily or every other day about 3 gallons."

So for right now I have continued watering each planter with about 3 gallons of water, daily. I pray they will recover and not get worse. I'm mostly concerned that the pine smell is no longer there at all!