Thank you so much for your advice. These trees have been planted by another contractor who dug holes, added some organic soil with manure and then inserted the trees in. I am pretty sure he did not watered the holes prior to putting them in. If I knew this, I would definitely check on that. I am going to keep an eye on the root ball and the color of the trees. Hopefully, the trees will survive.

Also, I've noticed that some of the branches, though still being green, are drooping off the main shape. It's only a few branches here and there, but I am wondering if I should do anything about it. Maybe tie them back in? If you look closer in the picture I think you can see what I am talking about. Thank you.

I've noticed that some trees have branches that started to yellow from then. I am attaching some pics. The trees were planted on 2015 Thanksgiving and overall appear healthy. I've recently turned off drip irrigation because we've been getting some rain and I didn't want to over water then. I've stuck my fingers around the root ball up till my knuckles and the soil appears wet. Is this something I should worry about or is it normal at this time of the year? For now, I've just pruned these dead branches. Most of them easily fell off when I touched them.

Incidental damage on those brown bits--may have occurred when being planted, and it takes a while for broken twigs of Cypress to dry out.

On a steep slope like that, the plants at the top of the slope will need more water than the ones at the bottom. This is due to gravity--water is pulled downwards towards the bottom of the slope. Tops of hills are drier than the base.

They look close to the fence. They can get 10'-15' wide eventually.

Thank you. Interesting, I've read about Italian cypress and it said that mature width was 3'-5'. If comes to worst, we'd have to move that fence a little, I guess.

I will dig dipper around the root ball tomorrow morning to make sure it's moist all the way down. These are #2 and #4 trees, so they are indeed at the very top of the slope. Though, with the weather being humid lately I can't imagine them not getting enough water. But, I'll check.

I took seeds from a cone and planted them. I know have little seedlings (see pic). I have just recently planted them inside a 5 gallon pot. I mixed top soil with sand and clay and watered generously. My questions: How often should I water them? I read on many sites that Italian Cypress like dry soil, while others say moist. One of the seedlings has brown bottom leaves. What does it mean? As little seedlings, I figured they needed watering every 2 days. Your help is very much appreciated.

The soil is likely staying excessively moist. Using garden soil - topsoil, clay, etc. - in a container is NOT advised due to its very small particle size (lack of porosity) and lack of ability for it to drain well. Also, those are unnecessarily large containers for such small starts so too much too wet soil as well. Watering every two days is way too much for those little guys in tha size pot and with that soil!!

When growing anything in a container you need a dedicated container soil - a soil-less mix that is primarily bark based. If not, you risk the excessive moisture retention and perched water table that will lead inevitably to root rots.

Try posting in the Container Gardening forum. This is really not an irrgation issue.

In Los Angeles we water Italian cypress about 2 - 3 times per week in the spring - Summer, and about once per week in the winter. Water deep,

Hi, I just found this, as i planted some similar sized tress this week. I wondered Julia how your trees are getting on?

For deep watering how long are you watering?