what method of watering and what is the frequency/amount of water?

do not use fertilizers on the heat stressed trees

Will they make it, or do these symptoms point to a pending death?

Impossible to tell with info provided. Ensure adequate moisture, which may mean more than turf irrigation provides.

Dan

Just how much are you watering them? Yellowing leaves can mean too much water as well as not enough. Do you have them properly mulched?

I am suffering right there with you! We had 113* yesterday around 5 o'clock and have had about 2 weeks worth of 105 or greater with one exception - a 99* winter blast haha

I have everything well mulched and have been watering every 3-5 days depending on the individual tree/soil and, so far, the only trees showing stress around me are trees planted by mother nature on hills.

Pics of your trees would be nice if you find the time :)

Ok. Here is the tree. Going downhill daily. Plenty of water based on my moisture probe.

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Yup. Getting fried. Welcome to the new weather normal.

The tree likely will shut down if this drought and heat keeps up. Next year will be sensitive as it won't have moved a lot of storage products into twigs and roots. I don't see the grass around the tree as being extra green from supplemental water from hose, BTW. Maybe a function of weather.

Dan

Welcome to the new weather normal.
Maybe, maybe not.

I bet the combo of heat AND wind is getting to them, but bottomline the leaves are drying out quicker than the roots can supply water. Also are you sure the water is really penetrating the rootball? Can you stick your finger into the rootball?

Ouch... whaas is right on. Can you tell us how, how long, and how much you are watering? That pic is.. depressing.

I am surprised no one has mentioned the root flare. Did you plant it or did someone else? Could be that it was planted too deep in that spot and water is having a very hard time reaching the roots.

All these heat posts prompted me to check the drought monitor...holy cripes! My area was in the red for 1 month each of the last two years. Not yet this year.

I noticed the tree appears to be a little low as well. Can you expose the rootflare and take a pic for us?

Here is a link that might be useful: Drought

The farm in which it came has sandy soil, so it's not hard to check. Attached is a photo of the trunk and the moisture probe 6 inches in. Believe it or not this tree looks worse than my spruce trees which don't like heat either. Amazing, today was only 101 and it felt cool.
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Also this is the worst of my London planetrees, although this tree appears to have some new buds coming.

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greatplains,
Can't say for sure with yours, but I had one of those moisture meters once, and threw it away. Realized it was POS. Wasted money. Maybe yours is not, but as Dan said, doesn't seem to be any green in the grass around the trees either. If there was enough water, then you would also have a ring of green grass. Lots of clues say not enough water, and only the meter shows there is. It's also odd that it is pegged all the way to "10". I simply do not believe it. EVEN if you were watering heavily, in this drought, the excess would peculate into the surrounding soil, and the meter would not read "10", and then there's that thing of green grass surrounding it again. In short, your meter, I think she is no good.

Use the finger test to confirm. Finger into the root ball to the second knuckle. Feel very moist, don't water. Feels on the dry side, water. Feels a little moist, but warm, water. Also water DEEPLY. That means slowly over a longer period of time. I'm sure some of this you know, but we are left to guess what people know, so it must be all included.

Arktrees

I was just going to say what Ark said. Your finger is the most accurate gauge. Throw that meter away!

In a decidedly ken way - and I thought he'd have chimed in by now - I say give it the finger.

Turf irrigation is often inadequate to establish trees. Drag some hoses around or else if everything continues the tree is going to shut down.

Dan

Did the finger test. Seems quite wet from the top down to second knuckle. I may go soak it hard just to see if that helps.

Soak, and then finger check every day or two. You probable won't need to water again for about a week. Then repeat. With luck, the tree will revive. I've seen Autumn Blaze look like death, but miraculously recover. One last thought that's nagging at me. You say it's a new house. When was it built? What is the soil like? Was it hard to dig a wholes for the trees? Was it hard packed because there was previously a farm pond or something in that spot? I'm wondering because these are very common problems with new construction, and because I notice in the picture of the Plane Tree, that the difficult area seems to extend into the neighbors yard. So just trying to do some "due diligence" and eliminate other possible problems.

Arktrees

Could it be too wet. Leaves were very yellow yesterday and more brown today.

The soil is pretty tight. The site was previously a wheat field before the development.

I'll soak in the morning to see if it stops it's decline.

If its wet, don't water it. Soaking it when its wet is not a good thing.

Freeman Maple can actually tolerate water logged soils occasionally but I don't know if that is the case when they are establsihing themselves.

Well I still wonder about not having green grass around it if it's too wet. That part doesn't add up. So did you drive the stakes in? If the soil is not compacted, then they should be relatively easy to drive, but if they are fairly difficult, then compaction is likely a problem. The point I was trying to make about the farm pond of something, is that during construction they often level and area. Meaning they will fill the low spots, and shave off the high. In the process of filling they compact the soil to a high "proctor", meaning almost no pores for air of water. They do this due to trying to prevent the foundation on new construction from cracking. Result, foundation is solid, but very difficult to grown anything on these areas.

FWIW, at this point I don't think soaking it will hurt. If it's too wet (still don't think it is due to no green grass), then it's probably too late. But if it's too dry, then it just might save the tree. However, water may not be the only issue here.

Arktrees

Digging around under the mulch I can't find anywhere that is dry at all. It is definitely dry around the tree, grass dying, but that issue is a function of a weak spot in my sprinkler coverage. I water this tree about once a week with a slow trickle hose, so I don't have much runoff to the surrounding grass. I thought these maples were pretty tough and I wouldn't expect the soil to be an issue, especially since I don't seem to be having trouble with the other trees in the same way.

Check the soil. Doesn't matter if you "expect the soil to be an issue" or not. It can still be an issue. I refer to standard construction practices. Choose to believe this is a potential problem or not. I'm just trying to help you, beyond that it is up to you. Also compaction may not be your entire yard. But it is a very large potential problem ESPECIALLY on relatively recent construction. FWIW, I don't think the plane tree looks all that great either. It looks like the trunk is damaged from sun scald, probable from being too dry with the afternoon heat of the sun on it, and/or lack of water in the the winter if it was planted in the fall. Still I don't have any experience with those. If the trees were getting enough water, it would also wet in the immediately surrounding soil for at least a few inches, and the grass would show it. And for supposedly watering the lawn, it looks very very dry. You say you use a slow trickle hose, but you don't say for how long, or at what rate. Just because it is damp immediately below the mulch, does not mean that it is well watered through out the root ball.

From all available information, it looks like not nearly enough water, and possible severe soil compaction as well. Choose to act upon this or not, it matters not to me.

Arktrees

How do the rest of the (recently planted) trees look in the neighborhood?

Is the soil moist all the way out or just by the tree? When you water it, do you water by the trunk only or out to the edges of the root ball? Soaking wet by the trunk and dry at the edges is not going to do the tree much good, as the roots are all through the root ball, and you want to encourage them to keep heading out, which means you water all around the root ball, to keep that soil moist too.

Look: the tree(s) had a bunch of its roots cut, now it is heat and drought as far as the eye can see. Is there something else we should expect that I'm missing here? Hopefully they will make it. It appears to me that everything is being done that should be.

Dan

Potentially, I see several green trees in the background...might not mean a thing.

The soil there could be an issue. I just didn't think the roots would have reached the point where that becomes a problem in the first few months. The green trees in the background have been there for years. The scarring on the planetree is from a deer scraping his antlers.