JFW432, it should be much easier on you, and you will not have to wait all that long if you wait until this hottest part of the Summer's heat breaks to plant those trees you posted in your photo on July 14th. If you plant them when daily high temps exceed 95 degrees,and if your soil is well draining they will need much more watering. Or if you plant them now, you might not see much growth out of them for several more years than if they were planted in your early fall months, or whenever the daily high temps do not climb above 98 degrees F. at those times in your area. Another thing to remember, is that GGs will change color in the winter if they are exposed to more winter sun and and wind. Planting them in a more sheltered area like with a north western exposure that where they are sheltered from large trees or buildings and fences directly to thier South and East, these GGs would be sheltered enough to avoid the winter browning problems mentioned above. Or even planting them where they will get morning sun and afternoon shade will help them out in your area. So in summary try to avoid planting them in area where they will be exposed to Southern or direct western and Northwestern exposure. That is if you agree it will bother you to see them change to their redish bronzy brown color that the other people are complaining about. In sandy soil at any location, use a non-burning slow release Osmokote type fertizer and water your trees daily for the first 2 weeks after planting. Then begin to slowly decrease the watering until you are only watering them twice a week. Keep watering them twice a week for about then next 6 months if your area is not getting regular rain events. after than your trees should be fine if you gradually slow down on the watering frequencly until you get find they are still doing Okay when you water them only once a week. Continue that weekly watering Unless you enter a period of frequent and sufficient rains, so much so that you can decrease the watering, or at such times in Summer of 2010 when the heat returns and the tree might need to again be supplimentally watered at least twice a week or more depending on how quickly draining the soil in in their planting bed. Osmokoke usually is sold in 3,or 4, and if I remember right even longer effective durations each per application. In my are I would only need to apply the Osmokote in late march and early September. Since your growing season is probably long than in my area, you might need to apply it 3 times or even 4 depending on how well draining your soil is. If your planting bed is slow to drain, then ignore the above suggested watering and feeding schedule, and test your tree's planting bed for their moisture level before giving them any more water. I say that because these trees roots will suffer signicantly is they are planted in clay soil which drains slowly and leaves the soil where they are planted saturated for extended hours of time. In moderate to heavy soil beds your goal would be to only keep the soil slightly moist and make certain that soil has become fairly dry before supply another application of supplimental watering. Also if the soil is clay do not add amendents soil to the back fill when planting the trees. If you want to give your trees the benefit of good compost soil, apply that compost as a mulch on top of your planting bed, and cover that compost with a thin layer of with a shredded ceder mulch if your need to prevent errosion from occuring in the planting bed or beds. Just keep both the compost and the mulch about 4 to 5 inches away from the trunks of your trees. Then here's another suggestion, keep in mind that on GGS any branch that you cut back to the trunk will remain bare. I mean, that no new branch will grow to fill that area of the trunk in. So if you want to do any pruning on your GGS never cut deeper than the green leaf folliage. Even if for any reason some of the the lower branches of your trees go dry and drop their leaves do not cut those branches off. You can instead simply water the tree more appropriatly long enough and the tree should at the appropriate time award you with growing new leaves on that previously dead looking branch. Oh almost forgot. The branches on these trees will die if large dogs are allowed to spray them. Such constant applications of the high content ammonia will begin to show signs of making the leaves turn red and then black just prior to when entire branch will die. If the soil is in the tree's planting bed is saturated with such high contents of ammonia all season long then in the next most stressful season some of the worst affected trees will be more prone to die no matter how much you attempt to care for them.

Monch I suspect from your post that you may have ordered them from Botany Shop. If so, you can expect some nice plants. We bought 3 from them. Here's a bit of info on my experience thusfar: First, ours are planted in Oconto County, about 150 miles north of where you are. They were mixed in with 100 Norway spruce seedlings in what is the beginning stage of a tree plantation we're starting. Since they were planted, there have been quite a few nights where the temps there fell near to or below the freezing mark. Good amounts of rainfall as well as a couple supplementary waterings have occurred. Much windy weather too. What looked like possibly new growth has browned up a bit. We caged 1 for deer and the other 2 are unprotected. There hasn't been any browsing on these 2 yet, but this time of year, the deer have plenty of other stuff to eat. We have procured additonal caging material, and will install that before next winter. Like everyone in the upper Midwest, this spring has been a bit cooler than average. While that has delayed the development of top growth on our young trees, I think it is probably beneficial in the long run, especially to their root establishment. I think you will have no undue difficulty with these GG's. They should not be fussy trees at all, esp. in your zone. I've been to Minors and saw theirs. Very nice plants. (My older son, who is a partner with me at the tree farm lives in Milwaukee). I'd not mess with burlap or any other special protection. If a tree needs that, I think it best to move on to some other variety. Also, if the GG's do thrive, they will soon be too tall for this anyway. Just ensure moist soil. If, during a given one-week period, there is heavy rainfall, you'll probably not need to water. The only exception would be if it was very hot and windy. As I mentioned earlier, we've not been plagued by those conditions yet this year;^) Good luck........+oM

Thanks for all of the advice guys. @ davidrt28 - thanks for the advice and ordering info @ kato_b , tsugajunkie - the larger 5 gallon plants don't look as bad. there is still some green, but they don't look that great. I actually started planting the smaller trees further back from the road because I was worried about the salt spray. I think they're around 28ft from the road and have those hedges in between the road and small trees. I thought that would have been enough protection... also before they even started salting last fall, they were starting to turn orangish. @ davidrt28 - nope.. I didn't fertilize them @ tsugajunkie - thanks for that link, I may have to look into a different species what a discouragement ... it would have been nice to see the majority survive after all the time and money I put into the project I'm thinking the best thing to do is look for several species that's resistant to salt spray and add a mix of trees This post was edited by duke90 on Thu, May 2, 13 at 0:53

I think many conifers grow very slowly. Pine trees are the exception. They grow very fast. You may consider those, but they are wayyyyyy more than 20ft. Another fast growing conifer is the Witchita Blue Juniper. It will get 4-8 ft wide and 15-20 ft tall. If you plant them, make sure to plant 4 feet next to each other. It can be used as a screen or a windbreak and will need no pruning. It also has appealing color. Goodluck with what ever you choose.