The cones would have been developing in the buds since summer 2007, so no, nothing to do with planting in April 2008.

Resin

please take a hand trowel.. and dig out near the edge of the rootball that was planted.. and insure that water is making it at least half way down what was probably a 2 to 3 foot rootball ..

'THINKING' that you are giving enough water is not good enough ...

i would hesitate to plant such a large specimen.. many fail simply due to size ... smaller plants can take the stress better ... and are easier to dig up ...

whether they suffered due to improper digging for transplant.. improper planting.. or improper water.. is impossible to say ... but 40% failure rate is a bit high for picea pungens ...

insure that the trunk's root flare is above soil grade ..

exercise your warranty at the appropriate planting time for your zone ... which generally speaking is fall ... with warm days and cool nights... tell us where you are.. and we can be more specific ... if the seller is hesitant... suggest replacement with 3 footers ... they will re-establish faster.. and may outgrow the 5 footers anyway ... pay a little extra if he can provide hoopsi.. or one of the named varieties of outstanding quality ...

good luck

ken

I am SE Mass. zone 5B? I think. I agree I will never buy such large trees again to plant- seems to be too much trouble with transplant shock and such. I did get a replacement for the one that died- they even threw in a 6ft. green giant as a little experiment to see if the deer would eat it-but thats another story. the trees were planted in early april 2007. I was very careful to have the whole dug wide and just deep enough so the top of the rootball is every so slightly above ground level. I amended the hole with some nice loom. so producing cones is a sign of some sort of stress then?

no ... the cones you see.. were 'started' in 2007 .. like resin said ...

you have to find out how the water is moving in your soil .... BTW.. what is your soil????

if clay ... they could be too wet ...

what did you find when the replaced on was removed??

ken

I will check tonight when I get home- just dig around the outside of the rootball. when the other spruce was removed the soil seem okay- just mostly the loom that was previously there- my soil is not clay- it seems to be pretty porous but not anything like sandy-sorry I'm not more technical on the descriptions. But the tree that was removed there seemed to be zero activity on the root system- no smaller surface roots and the main roots seemed to be very small and cutback a little much. for such a good sized tree the root system seemed almost non-exsistant. my friend that helped me also said it seems very tiny. probably why it didn't take I guess?
thetman

in others words.. and correct me if i misunderstand..

IT WAS IMPPROPERLY DUG FOR SALE ...

THAT ANSWERS WHY 3 ARE OK .. PROPERLY DUG ...

and 2 others are dead or struggling ...

3 wins.. probably means you are watering OK ...

i NEVER amend my soil on trees/conifers/shrubs .... and i have pure sand ...

most trees... want full drainage.. adding any water retaining stuff is contra indicated ....

ken

man,I hope they all weren't improperly dug. All of the rootballs seems huge when they were planted -very heavy-seems it was all dirt! I will check around he soil anyway- and try to post some pics (tried it once here- didn't have much luck) seems I wasn't getting any clear answers from the abrorist-or nursery. hopefully his forum can straighten things out. It's weird the trees with the cones are a deep green with a touch of blue- and the tree with no cones is almost lime-green color-with slightly blue tips on some branches- which I know can't be a good thing for a spruce.
thetman

here are some pics- I didn't have time to test to the soil-hopefully these will help out.

okay maybe this will work-having a tough time linking the images.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26803215@N02/sets/72157606542994266/

Thetman

The trees look reasonable for new transplants. The older, interior foliage is not great, but the new growth appears fine. That's what matters.

All harvesting of trees by nurserys is a compromise between getting all of the rootsystem, which would be impractical, and ending up with a rootball that is not too large to handle, etc. So I would say it's not so much that the unsuccessful trees were dug improperly, but rather, that that's the nature of the business. A compromise is reached whereby most rees make it, but some don't. As you have a warranty (I think), the nursery should take care of you. BTW, nice white pines in the background.

+oM

The idea of "stress cone crops" is a legend that never dies. There is lots of experimental and anecdotal evidence of big cone crops after a "stressful" event, whatever that may be. But there is much more evidence of heavy cone production following good cultural practices. The problem is there is no theory of cone production despite two centuries of forestry research. By that I mean no general explanation,that holds good for various trees, of the internal or external factors that set a cone crop in motion.

They look OK to me too.

Here's the link to the photos made clickable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos

thanks for responses-as for my warranty I believe its long gone- pretty good nursery (selection, staff) but their warranty is horrible. but the owner did come down this spring and made good on one-so we'll see. I still believe its touch and go with these spruces. I do take good care of them-and believe I have done everything right so far-but still not sold on if they will all make it. Thanks for providing a direct link Pineresin. Actually the picture of tree2 looks better than it does in real life-maybe i can capture a better one again. It seems lime-green almost yellow-green-while all the others are a very dark green. I also believe the interior foliage could be better-it seems barren in spots-and these don't come back I take it? well at least my skyrockets are really taking off (no pun intended). I think the real test will come next spring- early summer- they will be on their 3rd year and i should be alot clearer how well they will do. Didn't know spruce were so picky to get growing and take- If I had known this I probably would have mixed it up with something else, but I am still a novice to all of this.
thetman

So glad that I found this old thread, as I am facing the same issue now with my white spruce which was planted just over a year ago! This summer, it started to form tons of cones at the top, and the leaves on the inside were turning brown and falling off, though the outside branches still have healthy leaves. Of course we had the very hot temperature with hardly any rain this past summer.... so is there anything that I need to do now to help my spruce? OR just leave it alone and see what happens? The neighbouring Select Blue spruces which were planted at the same time are totally fine.

I am very curious to see how the OP's trees did in the end! Thanks!

WATER , WATER , WATER