These were potted plants from Home Depot. The problem trees seem to mosty be random. We got a heavy rain on Monday of ~2 inches and the soil is still moist under the mulch and a few inches down.

Big box stores are not known for their exemplary plant care. I would guess these trees have been stressed at some point in their transport (from who knows where) or their stay at Home Depot, and your subsequent purchase and planting has brought the already-existing stress to the forefront.

Looks to me like either sunburn or freeze-burn, but that’s just an educated guess.

Most of the trees that are dying are getting western exposure, so could be something related to sunburn. Who knows though… is there anything that can be done against sunburn? Also the trees were more than half off vs private sellers so I guess you get what you pay for.

At least at HD they swap them out within one year

but being dug from a field.. you really dont know if you have dug a good root mass ... ergo... they were doomed at potting.

if they were pot grown.;.. did you do any root surgery.. to insure the roots werent as then bus wheel goes.. round and round???

your soil looks sodden.. dig a few holes with hand trowel 3 t o 6 inches deep.. around some ugly pants.. and around some good ones.. see if you can intuit any difference ... report back ...

i am basically due east of you.. below ann arbor.. this time of year.. you should water the plant in heavily at planting .. and if mulch3d... you might not need to water again.. until mid july or august.. as the heat of summer starts pulling moisture from depth ... with cold nights.. and rain.. there just should NOT be a lack of water at root depth.. unless you didnt water them in properly at planting ...

wait.. you said mulched.. but the sodden pic. shows no mulch.. so figure it out per above ... dig holes ..

ALL OF US.. if we planted 32 of anything.. would expect a few losses ... nbd.. get over it ...

water properly ... and see how they go.. and plan on buying some replacements in fall .. aka.. the next proper planting season ....

imo.. its already too late to try again now.. summer heat is coming too soon ...

if the store has more.. hold them in the pot until fall planting..

your plants are severely stressed.. they are not hungry.. fert is not a proper response ..

ken

ps: and if they have only 5 gals in fall. so what.. why do they all have to be the exact same anyway ....

Ken thanks for the reply!

Before planting we massaged the root ball to loosen everything up and expose the roots - didn’t note any tangling. The potted arbs came in a sand soil mix of some form.

I’ve dug a some holes with the hand trowel down by the ugly trees and noted no differences in soil composition/moisture from the trees that are performing well.

The first picture is what I had after we first planted the trees, so was prior to mulch. A few days later we put a 3 or so inch layer of mulch covering all of the trees.

With regards to fertilizer - I read suggestions on using fertilizer while planting, so we put one cup of plat-tone in each dug hole. After the fact some people said contradicting things, so unsure at this point.

2 weeks ago we replaced 3 trees already, now there are about 3-5 more that are not looking the best (pictures provided) and like you said it’s too late to try replacing more at this point. These aforementioned ugly trees really have started turning for the worst after the big heat wave we had over the last week.

Is there a specific time in the fall that is best for planting? Early vs late etc

Dont feel bad Jessie. Im in Park Ridge, IL and bought 50 Em Green Arbs from HD and had them professionally planted in my yard in mid-August this year. 15 of them have now died and another 5 might too. Had an arborist come look at them and he told me a lot of HD trees die because they come from climates much different from Illinois and theres transplant shock. Also, due to recent heat waves and lack of rain, the trees need extra watering to ensure the root ball gets enough water for roots to spread out. I have the 1 year warranty but i think that i might just get a refund going forward and buy new ones from a local nursery.