Perhaps cold damage. At any rate won't have anything to do with a need for fertilizer. Dry brown parts are dead and might as well be cut off.

That is my hardest conifer to grow. Out of about 5, 1 is still living. My biggest problem was too much water, though I never watered them.

same here.. i think i had to buy 5 versions.. to get one to survive their first winter ...

i suspected they were grown in a much more temperate region.. and shipped into my cold MI ... and they had little sense of humor over their first MI winter ...

see link on proper watering ...

its stressed .. fert really isnt a reaction to that ...

discuss with seller if there is a warranty ...

remove the dead top down to just above new green growth ... and in tree time.. see what happens ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

Production facility location has no bearing on inherent hardiness, which is genetically determined. The main related issue is southern grown stock being shipped north in an advanced state of spring growth, that may be too far along for conditions still in effect in the north. After this window of vulnerability passes there is nothing about otherwise northern hardy kinds of plants having started out in the south, being trucked north that makes them more likely to freeze later.