Depending on what kind of evergreens they are, 8 feet might not be too close together at all. Can you provide us with a name of the plants?

you have to tell us where you are for us to define the proper planting seasons...

there is no reason you cant move them.. the only real question is whether ... now or fall.. or even winter.. is a better time to do it..

evergreen trees... need to have established root masses .... to get thru july and august.. in most of the country .. if they dont.. and they suffer drought.. they will be harmed.. and if needle damage is severe will 'show' in fall.. but if minor.. might not show until next spring .. winter complicating or increasing the damage..

where are you.. big city name.. and how bad are winds there.. especially in winter???

ken

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

I live in Park Kansas. We have been in a drought for quite a while. The trees are Colorado Blue Spruce bought from Gove County Conservation District. Winds are strong here and there is little surrounding my land to stop it. My trees are on the North, planted for a windbreak someday in the future. I have another 4 to put in to the back of these in the next week. We also have extremely hard water here in Park.

The trees are not doing well. Gove County Conservation district tells me they are suffering from Blight caused by the drought. I'm concerned that I will lose these and perhaps you can advise how to keep it from happening to the new trees I will put in this week.

I have this fertilizer to use for them.

8 ft is too close for blue spruce. Where you are in KS (low humidity) I would think thy can do OK if given enough water. These are thirsty trees, however. They are a riparian species so they need about as much water as it takes to keep a bluegrass lawn green. Need to water them diligently

You need water not fertilizer. New plants always need lots of water. Blue spruces are slow growers so if they need to serve a purpose, you probably chose the wrong species.

"suffering from Blight caused by the drought"

Any newly installed trees are going to need deep supplemental watering for the establishment phase- generally the first year.

And deep watering is not a walk-by with a hose- you need to lay the hose down with a slow trickle for as long as it takes to wet the soil down to the roots. How long is that? Depends on your soil, so most of us dig down to find out at least a few times until we understand our own soil.

I agree, don't fertilize. Those trees aren't ready for that and will stress them further.

West Kansas has always been considered to be a 'Semi Arid' part of the country so new trees will most likely need supplemental watering until the roots become more established.

There are some things to be considered here.

Colorado blue spruce (picea pungens) is a tree that's considered susceptible to needle cast disease.

So, it's advisable to plant them in a way that's not too crowded, so air circulation is adequate to minimize this.

Of course, this will take many, many years for this crowdedness to happen, with smaller trees like yours and if your summer humidity, is on the low side, it might be a non-factor.

And just water the soil, not the foliage.

If your goal is a windbreak, a second row that is staggered with the first row, works well for filling the gaps in between the first row, and will do this at an earlier stage of growth.

I can't help you with what species to plant other than to look around your area and see what types of spruce flourish there and choose those.