birds is a very good guess ... they often damage terminal buds on young conifers ...

was it leafed out when planted????

ken

I don't think it's normal to have that color when leafed out. But if the leaves stay on and healthy, may just be a trait?

It wasn’t leafed out when planted

Could be a trait. I know not a ton of people plant these. If there is any site where people have it’s here. It put on great new growth and obviously leafed out good. Hoping for the best

James, I share your concern but sometimes there isn't much to do.

Ever do a PH test on your soil and what has your watering schddule?

Looks better and flower-tips developing. Should be OK, but don't overwater it. In southwest VA where I lived, in the forest they did fine on rather dry, rocky slopes along w/rock chestnut oaks and mountain laurel..

PS, sourwood would indeed like a more acidic soil than 6.8, but not really alot one can do to change the pH of their soil. Occasionally I've sprinkled some "acid" fertilizer you can buy around the root zone of mine in mid spring. That fertilizer is usually labeled for rhododendrons and azaleas. But I don't use much......

Tree is a normal color now ! Just need to work on the branching. No real Central leader and nothing seems to want to take its place.

You'll have to be patient. Sourwood is notoriously fickle about making a tree instead of a bush, especially outside of its forest habitat. I never cut mine, and it's a big bush, but finally after 17 yrs or so each "side" is growing taller. I'd just be careful not to trim too much at a time. I'd trim in early-spring myself. Below is in mid-May.

Yeah I don’t want to cut mine I am just hoping to encourage the highest branch to become the leader. Fickle may be an understatement. Not many trees like sourwood where I’ve read about so many people struggled to get it established.

That is EXCELLENT news. Yours looks like nothing ever happened.

Mine w/its flowers in 2020. You can see from the pic above that it has in the last couple years grown faster. The leaves remain immaculate thru the season and then turn beautiful pink/scarlet red.

Some tip dieback on every branch. Survived its first full winter though ! Most people fail with this tree when reading about in some of my Pennsylvania based gardening pages so I am thrilled !

James, the tip dieback is normal, happens every year. That's just the way it grows. Honeylocust has the same, natural tip dieback. Here's my sourwood last, rather late autumn.

tree time is counted in decades...

when it has a mature root mass .. in 5 to 10 years.. die back will probably end ...

a tree is mature.. when the root mass is the same above ground and below ground..

obviously we cant see when that happens.. so all we can do.. is water when and if the tree needs it.. probably only in drought.. unles our lawn is irrigated....

if you fert your lawn.. your trees will NEVER need to fert your trees and shrubs...

since your lawn is completely weed free.. perhaps you could stop using weed and feed .. a thick green lawn is 99% weed barrier.. i bet you could go 10 years without treating for weeds... go for. it.. and save a few bucks paying for that product... i mention this because there have been a few instances of babe trees not happy about weed killer applications...

ken

No chemicals on this lawn Ken

ken, the tip dieback in this case has nothing to do w/age. It's a characteristic of some trees that do not develop terminal buds, that's all.....