Have you checked the soil to be sure the soil has enough and not too much water - while you may think that you have been doing it right, unless that is borne out by the amount of moisture in the soil, maybe it wasn't right. (And I am not trying to be snide, just saying that opinions are just that until verified by observation.) Did you wait to be sure the top couple of inches of soil were dry before you gave the trees a very long slow watering? You want the water to get to the bottom of the root ball, not just to get the top few inches of soil wet. How often did you water in the first week the trees were planted?

I assume they were planted more than a month or so ago, so transportation-caused wind-burn isn't too likely, unless you have had unusually heavy and sustained winds since they were planted, in which case they may be wind-burned. It's less likely, though.

Did you mix any fertilizer in the hole when you planted the trees? Or did you recently feed your lawn? Too much of a chemical fertilizer may have caused root-burn, and the tree may not have been able to sustain the amount of leaves it was carrying. Flushing the soil well with water would help wash any excess fertilizer away fron the roots. Don't use lawn fertilizers around the bases of trees, they don't need it, and it can cause damage.

Has it gotten very hot, all of a sudden? Could the leaves be sun-scorched?

Have you or your neighbors sprayed any herbicides in the past few days? A slight over-spray or wind drift may have been enough to cause leaves to die, without majorly affecting the tree. If that happened, the leaves will probably re-sprout, but may be slightly mis-shapen.

It's hard to be sure what caused the leaf damage, especially from a distance. If the cambium layer stays green, and there is no die-back of the twigs, then I think you can assume the trees will continue to live.

Mulching around the trees will help keep the soil moisture levels more even, keep the soil a little cooler, limit weed competition from grasses, and keep weed-eaters and lawn mowers away from the trunk. Apply no more than 4" of mulch, as widely as you can, and put no mulch in the 2-4 in. next to the trunk. Use any organic mulch, and resist any advice to put landscape cloth under the mulch. It won't really help limit weeds, and the tree roots will grow up into it, making problems when you do decide to remove it.

Thank you so much for your help! I forgot to mention, I am a newbie at starting trees. I think they could use a good soaking as we haven't gotten a lot of rain in the last month. It was a wet spring though. Thanks again for your reply it is GREATLY appreciated!

Mark

You DO need to water the equivalent of an inch of rain per week, in a slow, deep watering. A quick spray with the hose won't do it, nor will expecting the lawn irrigation to cover the trees' needs. Setting a hose to barely trickle and leaving it for at least half an hour - adjust as experience shows what works - should do it. As I suggested, checking the moisture levels in the top few inches of soil next to the root ball will tell you if you need to water or not. A blanket directive - water every week - doesn't take into consideration the amount of rain that might have fallen, the amount of drying winds you have had, the air temperature, the amount of sunshine, cloud cover, etc., all of which can affect how dry the soil is. It's better to check, and water according to the condition at hand. Good luck.