interior browning is ENTIRELY NORMAL ...

increased by transplant..

and doubly increased by lack of water after transplant ... but you got that part ...

generic soaker hoses are NOT engineered for hills ... as you suspect ... they can not even out the pressure .. so all the water is going downhill ... and that is why those are fairing better ...

you water a conifer/tree when it needs water.. and that is best indicated by inserting your finger to the second knuckle and watering when it needs water ... the first year or two after transplant.. you are fully in charge .... or at least you are NOW.. lol ...

i wouldnt be surprised.. if the ones that are doing best were the spring plantings... i will guess the ones 6 weeks later are struggling a bit more [if they arent downhill] .... because they immediately went into the hot part of summer with insufficient roots ....

all you need to do.. is forget about the brown.. and get some proper water on them ... how is the bigger issue .... you can buy engineered drip line .... or you can cut yours down.. and with a couple hose fittings.. make a contraption that does one tree at a time ..just a 2 or 3 foot circle around the tree ... and run it.. until the ground is well moistened ... in the alternative.. a plain old sprinkler on very low pressure doing just 2 trees at a time should also work ....

once the clay is properly wet.. a good blanket of mulch will help hold the water in the clay ... to avoid the great extremes of watering ...

by next spring.. the brown stuff inside will be crispy.. and you can stick an arm in.. and work it all out .. which you should do every year or two anyway ... as the plant grows. it will shade out the interior.. and in years of drought.. the trees will show more browning then in other years.. but there will ALWAYS be interior browning ...

good luck.. and thx for being the first in weeks to actually post a picture without us begging [or so it seems]

ken

Inner (older) needles of Arborvitae are browning out now. This is normal fall needle drop.

I suspect within a week or 2 the ones at the bottom of the incline will do the same, or the ones you put in later are from a different source (even though you may have pruchased them from the same place).

That isn't normal. There are a lot of dead shoots, entire ones. Pretty blurry photos as well.

Some of what the guys are saying is indeed correct...... however I might suspect insect damage, especially bagworms.
(check for clinging cocoons).

Let's start again from the beginning. Some fresh photos would sure help.

Thanks,

Dax

We got a ton of rain the last couple days and I plan to put some mulch down in the next couple weekends once I get some time. Maybe do the drip line first. These pics where taken with my phone, I'll try to get some better ones since they seem to be a big hit. This is great help, thanks! I dont' remember seeing anything like the bagworms. I'll look for that.

if there is one dead area per plant .. about the size of a mans hand.. grabbing a wad of needles .... .. think about the guy who grabbed the plant.. to throw it onto [or off of] the truck .... damaging one area ... in other words mechanical damage due to shipping ....

otherwise.. your plants look a nice deep green .. and look just fine for stock that was just planted in spring ...

they ought to grow like the weeds they are next year ... and fill in all the spots that are bugging you ... insure that they are properly watered all next summer.. and they ought to be free range after that ...

the biggest problem is your worry level.. and perhaps your expectations of what they could accomplish in 9 months ... the fact that it is basically a deep green.. and alive.. is good enough for year one ...

good luck
ken