Can you please give us a bit more information?
1.) Where you live.
2.) Where you got the trees from.
3.) The type of plants... Bare root or 5 gallon container style from the local nursery?
4.) Varieties of apples perhaps?
5.) Possibly a pic of the dieback?
6.) Anything else you can think of? Weather conditions?
-Glenn

NC, mail order, willis orchard out of ga. Bare root 2-3' One pink lady and one fuji. Others seem fine. Has been cold and wet. Easily the longest cold spell I can recall, even if not the coldest. Highs in the low 30's, lows in the teens for a couple weeks. No pics, sorry.

That probably means the trees were low on energy due to drying out in the warehouse or some other such problem. Don't do anything to them now other than cross your fingers and hope they sprout in the spring. Whether they will sprout or not depends on how much energy they have left in them come springtime. I don't think Willis is a very good source and your trees confirm that.

Scott

I bought a Drawf apple tree at HD. 1 week after I plant on the ground the leave has rusted. It is because my husband put cow steer under the root at plant. He digged out the tree and moved to another location, clean up the cow steer and trim out all the leaves. My tree has green trunk about 2 inches brown at the lower part of the trunk. Would this tree be alive? Or should I assume it is dead and throw it away in trash can? Please help! Thank you,