HI Fruitnut, Thanks for the reply. I did not do much watering, other than the sprinkler(twice a week , 10 minutes each for the grass, the tree is grown in the back yard). My yard has typically central Texas hill country area type of soil, alkaline, with lots of rocks underneath. So when I planned the tree, I put in some soil purchased from local nursery to fill the holes, this soil is pretty sandy mixing with compost. I did a soil test, it's PH value is around 8, nitrogen based on the color of the test is kind of weak. Water drainage is pretty good for the tree hole. I had not applied any fertilizer ever since it was grown in Feb. Thanks Rich

your link doesnt work ... i see NATURALLY occurring lichens.. which in no way harm the tree ... on this one pic ... other than that.. i see an improper pruning stub .... try finding the HTML code at picasso.. and paste it where you type.. to insert pix into your post .... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

its dying... time to get rid of it.. and plant another ... its time to invest and divest.. and though your inclination is to invest.. i say but nay.. divest ... the best decision i made at my first house.. was the day i got rid of the last nightmare the prior owners left ... unfortunately it was 5 years later.. and i wasted a lot of time trying to save history.. i say pshaw on history.. get rid of it.. and create your own nightmares.. lol ken

Does the soil in the area drain reasonably well? No high water table or anything like that? Good drainage, on a bit of a side to side incline. There appears to be something wrapped around the trunk towards the base of the image. Am I seeing things? No, good eye, that is where the stapping was wrapped around the tree from two sides connected to 2 green tree posts. Also, any chance we can see the base of the tree (where it's actually planted in the soil)? The tree is is surrounded by grass. Soil amendments are no longer recommended for the planting of woody trees and shrubs. Expensive or not. It's long been known that the addition of such improvements when planting hole-by-hole, can slow down the establishment of the plants into the surrounding soil, if not cause some major problems. Landscaping companies have been slow to 'get' this, though it's old, old news. Ah, that's bad news for me. this is one of the "best" nurseries in town. The nursey extends the warranty on the tree if I pay for amendments I'd also suggest that 14 minute irrigation cycles are not long enough to get water throughout the root mass. If your tree is mulched properly, and I hope that it is, 14 minutes of irrigation from the typical sprinkler system won't even make it to the soil at all. The mulch will be nice and wet, though. No Mulch, but I do soak each tree on my property with a 3 hours soak When establishing woody trees and shrubs, auxiliary watering is required, above and beyond what is supplied by the lawn irrigation cycles. You can't increase the duration on the regular cycles, or you'll kill your grass! SO, a weekly hand watering with a hose gets the job done. Concentrate on the root ball, and not the lawn surrounding the it. But that's all for future reference. And perhaps you did the hand watering for the first year, and just didn't mention it. Sorry for all of the questions on my part. Diagnosing tree problems via images is nearly impossible, especially with such limited information. The SYMPTOMS your tree is exhibiting can be caused by a number of things and I'm just trying to narrow down the possibilities Thanks so much for the help, I will get more pictures soon.