Pictures of the trouble would help.

Did the company that planted offer any kind of warranty?

How did they look last fall going into winter?

It was a tough winter on some things. I'm skeptical a $700 feeding will save a spruce in trouble.

Spruce planted one year ago barely have a root system outside the original rootball and even less if they were field dug (not container grown).

Fertilizing is ill advised until a decent root system has developed and even then, only if a nutrient deficiency in the native soil is identified. Fertilizing actually impedes the development of a wide spreading root system which is critical for long term success (eg. drought resistance).

Starved plants do no benefit from the withholding of correctly chosen fertilizer products that address the specific soil deficiency involved. The time to fertilize is when a plant needs it.

Stock in good condition at time of planting produces new roots from cut root ends the first spring after planting, which then extend significantly the first autumn after cut roots have been replaced with new root growth. Intact (new or uncut) roots undertake 60% of the annual increase in their length during fall each year.

Spring in this context is when the top first starts growing and fall is when it stops. So a summer drought affected tree or shrub, that discontinues new top growth well before autumn will make the big annual rooting out push at this time even if the soil is dry. This is because this seasonally related root activity is regulated by hormones produced by winter stem buds at shoot tips. And not directly by the weather.

$700 is pretty intense.

What did their soil test show you were missing?

If no soil test I sense some ppl who are guessing at best, MAYBE they know whats missing from most soils in the area, maybe.

Cow poop or horse poop is pretty easy to find. Even in a city. Composting it is free and easy. And then you can charge yourself $700 for shoveling poop. Looks like they are putting out plenty of free poop as it is.

There is not enough information provided to know anything other than: guy has trees. Trees not doing well. Someone wants to make money. Guy would most likely prefer not to spend it.

Ken...take all you think you know about fertilizer...and STOP IT. Drought stress, no fert. Any other condition, fertizer will not hurt, will probably help, and often is what is needed.

But first...you gotta know what is happening. And there is no way of knowing anything based on the information provided. Assumptions? Yes. Easy to assume. And easy to forget where doing so gets you.

We planted the trees in May last year. They are Black Hills Spruce. We obtain them in the pots at roughly 5 to 6 feet in size. We were told they were dug 2 weeks previous to when we purchased them. We are in central Minnesota. The soil is heavy clay and when we dug the trees in we went twice the size of the root ball. We've been told by a couple people that our soil is too alkaline and needs to become more acidic. The gentleman that stopped here and gave us a bid did not do a soil test and is claiming his company has and all organic mixture of vitamins and nutrients that will really help establish great results with these trees. Also last year in the fall he had some Galls on some of the branches and another person looked at the trees from a local Nursery and suck it just maybe transplant stress. To my wife and I the trees looks like they are definitely stressing. Don't trees have a number of pine cone on the top part of the tree. I guess our question is, what can we expect of Black Hills Spruce for being only a year old and also what should we be doing to provide the best chance of success and care for these trees?

I don't actually see anything wrong with your trees. They look remarkably good for large spruce planted only 12 months ago.

BTW...Black Hills Spruce is very tolerant of alkaline soils.

They look great to me also. About the only thing you should see this time of year on younger spruce is buds swelling and bud breaking. Female cones come much later in life and male cones can vary from tree to tree whether or not they have them.

Here is a picture of one of my 4 ft. Picea glauca from the other day, it was transplanted a couple of years ago so maybe is a little ahead of one more recently put in. No cones now but a few male pollen cones came on a year ago I think.

As an afterthought, my sandy soil warms up faster than clay soil so my trees would more than likely be somewhat ahead of yours where growth is concerned.

They look fine for baby trees, but I would clear more grass away from them (like in Bill's picture, right above), and put more mulch around them (staying a little bit away from the trunks). Dig your fingers into the root ball and make sure that they are moist enough.

Any progress report on these trees?