insure that water is getting into the root zone ...

deep watering is requisite... and then let them nearly dry before drenching again ....

in your yard.. in your soil.. only you will be able to learn how to get water into the root zone... insert finger to the second knuckle.. or dig a small hole.. and make sure water is down there ...

some bronzing is basically normal.. brown is never normal ....

any chance at posting a picture??

ken

Drip watering systems seem to work well with that many Thuja 'Green Giants.'

That is, if you monitor the drip system enough to ensure the trees receive enough consistant water, but also that the soil at no times becomes soggy.

When I first plant my trees, they let me know if they are not getting enough water by first turning tan. If I begin to to keep them better watered at that stage, they are much easier to correct.

Do not let any big dogs urinate on your trees. If that happens, it does not take long for the branches to turn the color you described.

In the winter, if the trees receive a south and southwest exposure, of drying sun and winds, they may turn a brownish burgundy color, and not green back up until they begin growing better in the following Spring.

These trees are also hit hard when they are planted in slow draining soil, like clay, and there has not been anything done for them to drain off the excessive water in the soil. When this happens I have seen the leaves turn goldish brownish at the start, but then turn completely brown. The cause of this problem, often occurs when their fairly fine textured roots have become unhealty due to too much water in the soil suffocating them. If left in that state, long enough they will die, or if a sudden day or two of dry soil event follows their previously begun suffocating roots condition; they will not be able to compensate, and these trees usually die.

Especially before these trees establish and when they are only 6 feet tall or less, if rain runoff which collects and puddles a little over their rootballs occurs, that will signifcantly stress them at first exposure, and even kill the trees in a very short time if the situation reoccurs several times within a period of few months.

Hello - thank you for the posts as I appreciate them. I do have pictures - how do I post them on here?

And I do have a large Boxer dog who lives in the back yard. He may be peeing on them??

Red Flag!! Large Boxer. My daughter and her husband rented a small house from me, and their 65 pound boxer consistantly hiked his leg on the thuja Green Giants that I was trying to get established in the back yard. they kept him in the house alot, but always let him out to do his job anywhere he wanted in that yard. Of course those five feet tall trees attracted him the most.

He is not a raw food fed dog, so where ever he hiked his leg, he left strong urine odors; very similar to what would happen if it were a person instead of a dog using the trees for that purpose.

Even though they moved out into a house of their own after about 6 months, the dog's stong urine had killed one of my 'Green Giant' trees to the point that it never tried to recover and had to be removed.

At the time they move out about 5 other Green Giants growing in a group I planted as a screen also showed damage similar to what you describe has appeared on yours. Since the dog no longer has access to my trees, those damaged ones seemed to bounce back in the last month, but just the other day I noticed that, two of them are showing sever signs of stress. Hopefully they can still recover, especially since we are still receiving pretty regular rain events and since the soil where they are planted drains nicely.

Is there something I can put around the trees to keep his pee from hitting them?