What zone are you in? How much sunlight do they get? Leyland's are actually quite drought tolerant. 2x per week seems excessive, but you will need to determine that yourself by either using a water meter or inserting your finger to the second knuckle and seeing if the soil is damp before watering. Conifers like a good drink, then near drying before the next watering.

Also, stop the miracle grow immediately. That's just going to stress them out. Leyland's are just like any other tree. First year they sleep, second they creep, and the third they leap... I have found them to grow much faster than Green Giants once established.

no recent transplant is drought tolerant.. until it becomes established.. and that can take 1 to 3 years.. depending on the size of the transplant ..

speaking of which... all the questions sc asked. need to be answered plus a pic.. if you want some valuable responses ... including.. when planted.. did they happen to be mid summer transplants ? .. were they severely rootbound in the pot... etc ... is the hill south facing ...

the pattern of the browning.. really tells us nothing ... but we might see something else ...

if you have a warranty.. you should probably return them ....

ken

I'm in Asheville NC zone 6B. They were planted on a south facing slope alongside driveway. Planted 9 feet apart.They get full sun all day. They were planted late spring last year, so that makes them just under a year old. They were root bound in the pots, but I did loosen it up a bit. This was an old tobacco farm, so I do try to enrich the soil with mushroom compost when I plant things. All the white pines and Hemlocks do fine. I'll send pics tomorrow. Thanks for the responses

Don't mix anything into planting holes, do fertilize from the time of planting if there appears to be a need. And if the roots are still in circles or otherwise deformed it would be worthwhile to dig them up and fix them - this fast-growing, heavy crowned tree often blows over otherwise.